Melodies of Life Chronicles: Fate
by The Duelist of Dawn
Summary: A man gets sent into his game after being injected with a syringe which enhances his fighting ablities, but if he dies it's game over....for good! Complete! Stay Alert for the second installment!
1. CH1: Begin Game!

Here is a Final Fantasy nine story, brought to you by the Duelist of Dawn! (I really need a name change don't I?)

After reading so many Self-Insert stories, I had to start wondering what would happen if I were in the game with the good people of Final Fantasy 9!

Well, like the game is broken into four discs, the entire story itself will be broken into four stories!

Also, I'll have some elements inspired by some authors of the other Final Fantasy stories to spice it up a bit.

So here are my fighter stats and things he'll use before continuing to story:

**Name:** Ronald Harris

**Age:** 21

**Job class:** Monk

**Weapon of choice:** Martial Arts (Think Tifa Lockheart and Zell Dincht), gloves, knuckles.

**Skills:** (Normal) Fighter Art (Abbreviation: Fght Art) [At the end of the chapter my OC uses it, it will be displayed on the bottom]

**Skills:** (Trance) Aura

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**Disclamer:** I don't own Final Fantasy 9, Square-Enix does.

**Claimer:** I do own Ronald Harris, the OC or SI.

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To begin, I had to ask myself: Why did this happen? I get sucked into my game, forced into fighting for my survival, and worse; I could be killed at any time, never to see my home or family again! I mean can a guy have a normal life for God's sake!?

Sorry, let me start over by introducing myself: My name is Ronald Harris, a 21-year college student who loves to play video games. 5'9", Black hair that has been cut, an African-American and personality that says: "I need a hobby!" Yeah, I know I need other things to do, but after working during summer season and doing college work, I need some down time. I'm also pretty decent fighter; decent enough to walk out living, but that was before being transported into the Final Fantasy game of the PlayStation One! You know what? Let me show you how, I got there and maybe it will all make sense of why I'm worried about being killed or never going home…...

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(Ronald's house)

"Well, another day wasted filing job applications." I said lying on my bed. "I've got a good resume, I've never been fired and I get the job done no matter what, why is getting a job much harder than the job itself!?"

_Yeah, I was in a slump; I had to make some money but job searching's not what it used to be anymore, even if the job is within walking distance…._

"Sigh…Nothing left to do but play some video games to end the day!" I exclaimed, getting up to my PlayStation 2. "A good Final Fantasy game should get me excited again!"

I went to my shelf and checked out my stash of PS1 and PS2 video games. I hardly ever play them; only when I'm bored out of my mind, I'll bring them out for old time's sake. I finally settled on one game in particular….

"Well, I haven't played Final Fantasy 9 in a long while so why not?" I said to myself.

I inserted the game into his PS2 System and turned it on. After the game finished loading, and selected 'New Game,' the opening sequence came in: A woman and a little girl, probably her daughter, were riding on a boat through a dangerous storm. Next, Princess Garnet wakes up from her dream and she looks out her window to the glorious kingdom of Alexandria. After that, the game goes on a static rampage then the television starts flashing white and black… wait a second…

"Huh, what's going on!?" I was shocked and angry at the same time seeing one of my favorite games being fried with electricity.

Suddenly, a voice comes from the television…..

"This is the ultimate game." The voice says in a dark, monotone voice.

"What!?" I questioned, since this wasn't in the game, obviously.

"This is a game of where your life is on the line and death will mean termination of your real self." The voice continues.

"Okay…. " I say, not understanding the voice's message. "But what's this about my life on the line and death of my 'real self,' it's just a game!?"

"Now's not the time to question, human." The voice answers. "

Just then, a syringe filled with red liquid floats out of the television and hovers in front of me, spooking me at the same time.

"If you accept," The voice explained, "You'll be injected with this substance that increases your chances of survival. If not, you'll be stuck in this dream state I have placed you in."

'_Oh crap, when did this happen!?' _ I thought in fear for a few seconds. _'Okay, calm down. Whatever this thing is, basically has my life in some sort of a sleeping limbo, if that exists. On one hand, I'll be doing something with my life, but on the other hand, if I'm not careful, I'll be returning home in a coffin. Oh well, what have I got to lose!'_

"I'll do it!" I said confidently.

"Are you sure?" The voice asked. "Once you accept the game, there's no…

"Look, you come out into my room and say that I can't go back to my world without playing a video game. You then try to ask me if I'm sure!? There's no way around it, I'm going and that's final!" I angrily interrupted the voice.

"Then the game starts, NOW!" The voice said.

As soon as the mysterious voice finished speaking, the syringe that has been floating in front of me during the conversation, struck me in my left forearm.

I screamed at the top of his lungs as the liquid was injected within me and the veins inside my skin seem to glow bright red.

"Why….is….this….so……pain…ful?" I asked fighting through the pain.

The syringe unhooked itself from me, drained of all the red substance, leaving me passed out on the floor.

As I slipped into unconsciousness, I heard, "Begin."

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(???)

It's dark around me now. That injection knocked me out in a bad way. I've never felt so helpless in my entire life.

"Um, excuse me mister, are you alright?" I heard another voice calling out to me, but this one sounded like a young child. I also felt something push up against my right shoulder, must have been the child doing that, too.

"Uhhh, man I feel like I went 10 rounds against my father." I groaned still laid out on the ground. "Wait, the kid that just shook me, where did he go?"

"I'm still here." The young voice answered.

I turned my head in the direction of the voice, and I saw something unbelievable……the kid that woke me up was wearing a tattered blue coat, a pair of brown pants, a brown hat that has its top flopping downward, brown gloves and a face…well you couldn't see much of his face, just bright yellow eyes from a dark shroud. It was Vivi, the black mage!

"Whoa!" I ended up jumping to my feet in surprise.

"Are you OK?" The black mage asked me.

"Yeah." I replied, still not understanding how I got here. "Where are we?"

"You're in Alexandria, of course!" Was Vivi's answer.

My eyes widened at the news, how did this happen? Am I dreaming this? Did whoever it was that injected me with that strange, red liquid bring me here?

I double checked myself; I was wearing a white muscle shirt, ever since I started working out three years ago, I found myself wearing them a lot. I also had a pair of blue jeans and my black gym shoes.

'OK, I'm not naked' I thought to myself in relief. 'That's a good sign, wait a sec!'

I gave myself another once over, and saw that I was ripped. My muscles became more defined; I flexed my arms to get a feeling for both of them, then I checked my legs and found that they went through the same treatment my arms got. Then, I lifted up my shirt a bit and saw I had a defined six-pack!

'Was this because of that red liquid?' I asked myself.

But then, I thought I would worry about that later.

Last order of business, I checked out my surroundings: nothing but stores, houses and slightly large buildings that was either stores or maybe an inn.

"Hey, where's my ticket?" I was brought out of my thoughts, to find Vivi looking for his ticket around the street.

I helped look for it, by peering into an alley, nothing but trash and darkness in their. As soon as I turned around, I found the ticket, turns out it was right under the spot where I woke up. I picked it up a called out to Vivi.

"Hey, is this it kid?" I shouted to him, being careful that I don't reveal that I know his name, so I can avoid being bombarded with questions.

By the way he was rushing toward me, he must have been very happy to see that he didn't lose his ticket.

"Thank you, mister!" He exclaimed with glee.

"Hey, you don't have to call me mister, OK?" I decided to introduce myself, so I'll be able to call him properly. "My name is Ronald, but you can call me Ron." I offer my hand in greeting as well.

"M-My name is Vivi, nice to meet you." He shook my hand in return.

"No need to be shy all of sudden, Vivi." I told him. "Just being the friendly guy that I am!"

"I understand." Vivi said while adjusting his big hat.

"So, what's the ticket for?" I asked striking up a conversation. "You're gonna see a show?"

"Yes, it's called 'I Want to Be Your Canary!'" He jumped up a bit as he said that.

"A play?" I asked again.

"Yeah, and I heard it's a very good one!" I notice that Vivi was warming up to me, yet we've only just met. I remember in the game, he was a shy individual up until he found the Black Mage Village.

"Hm, interesting…." I muttered. "I'll join you!"

"Great, but do you have a ticket?" Vivi stopped to ask. "You won't be able to get into the castle without one."

"Oh yeah." I said looking downcast. I needed a ticket stamped to get inside the castle gates, in order to view it, but there was another way if I recall……

"On second thought, I'll just accompany until you get inside, don't want to lose your ticket again, do we?" I said.

"Oh……. okay. But are you sure?" Vivi pondered.

"Sure I'm sure! Trust me!" I said trying to convince him.

"Okay! Let's go!" Vivi said.

Vivi and I began to walk down the streets of Alexandria on our way to the ticket booth to get Vivi's ticket stamped for the play. We saw many people closing up shop, locking up their homes and lots of children running past us; probably going to see the play I thought to myself.

We were almost out of the first part of the street, until….

WHAM!!

Something hit me and Vivi from behind, making us both fall flat on our faces.

"Uhh, Vivi you alright?" I groaned rubbing the bruise on my forehead.

"Yeah." He groaned as well, rubbing his left arm. "What hit us just now?"

"HEY!!!!" Another little kid voice shouted at us. And it wasn't friendly or polite either.

Vivi and I got up, dusted ourselves off and turned around to find….

"Why don't you two get outta my way!" A rat kid with dark orange overalls and a hat shouted at us like we were preventing him from something.

The rat kid ran off leaving Vivi and I puzzled.

"He must be in a hurry." Vivi said curiously.

'_Puck.' _I thought. _'Crazy little rat.'_

"Come on, Ron, we're going to be late!" Vivi snapped me out of my mind; he was already near the ticket booth.

"Hey, wait up!" I shouted back, running towards him.

We reached the ticket booth inside the main square, I saw an inn and a weapons/synthesis shop on both sides of the booth, behind it was the gate to Alexandria Castle.

"I'll go get my ticket stamped now, OK?" Vivi asked.

"Alrighty, I'll wait outside here." I replied back.

Vivi nodded and went inside the booth.

'_Hmm, what to do before he gets back?' _I thought. Since I was stuck here, I wondered how I was going to affect the original storyline. I've read some fictional stories on how the main guy/girl was sent into a Final Fantasy by either sucked into their game systems or TV, their dreams sent them there or they were simply invited to do so. I guess I can put myself in a new category called 'I offered myself to the job, got injected with red stuff, knocked out, then woke up' if you can call it that.

"NOOOOOO!!" I heard Vivi cry out in a depressing tone.

"Huh?" I asked, then it hit me…..

"Oh man, I totally forgot the fact that his ticket was a fake!" I realized running into the ticket booth.

Inside, I found Vivi hanging his head down while the person in the booth was trying to console him.

"Vivi, what's wrong?" I asked, knowing full well what the answer is.

"M-my ticket w-was a fake." He answered in between sobs.

"Now, now, don't cry." The ticketmaster replied. "Here, you can have these as an apology!"

Vivi looked up and saw the ticketmaster holding out what appeared to be three cards.

"Find someone who knows the card game to learn more about them!" The ticketmaster said.

"Okay." Vivi said still down about his fake ticket.

Vivi and I left the booth and sat down near the inn where three little girls were playing jump rope.

"What are these cards?" Vivi asked.

"Here, let me see." I said

"Sure." Vivi gave me the three cards, it had pictures of wolf –looking creature with dark fur, a skeleton with a dagger, and a goblin who was also holding a dagger. All the cards had arrows pointing away from the monster's picture on the outer edges of the cards. Plus, they had the same picture on the back except the front had a blue background and the back had a red background. I thought it be best to show him the game.

"Oh, these are Tetra Master game cards!" I said, looking surprised.

"What's Tetra Master?" Vivi asked me.

"It's a card game that needs at least five of these monster cards." I explained. "People play these and battle with others, when you win you can take one of the loser's cards.

"That doesn't sound fun to me." Vivi said taking back his three cards. "I'd rather keep mine."

"Okay, I figured you want to just collect them and not play them." I said, smiling.

"But now how are we going to see the play, I spent 3,000 gil for it." Vivi said sadly.

"3,000 gil!" I yelled, and then kept my voice down due to every person in range of my outburst giving me strange looks. "Someone just swindled you big time, kid!"

Vivi sighed and looked down at his feet.

'_Wrong choice of words, genius!'_ I scolded myself. Then, I just remembered a way to get into the castle and see the play!

"Hey, Vivi!" I said to him, grinning.

"Y-Yes?" He asked, startled by my change of emotions

"Let's go, we're going to see that play!" I grabbed his hand and ran through a nearby alley.

"H-How?" He asked shakily, probably because of me running while dragging him.

"Trust me!" I replied.

As we ran through the alley, well I ran with me dragging him, I came to an abrupt stop with Vivi crashing into me and falling on his butt. That event caused a nearby worker to miss hammering down a sign.

"Hey, you made me miss you klutz!" He yelled at me.

"Wasn't my fault you weren't paying attention to your job!" I argued back.

He just grumbled something and then fixed up the sign perfectly.

"Well all done!" He said cheerfully as he climbed down the ladder he was on and left.

'_Mood swing much.' _I thought with an annoyed look on my face watching him leave the way me and Vivi came in.

"Ron?" Vivi asked still sitting.

I looked down at him and pulled him to his feet.

"Sorry, Vivi." I said sheepishly rubbing my head with my left hand.

"It's okay." Vivi said adjusting his hat. "But look over there!"

I turned around to find the same rat kid who bumped into us early. He was looking suspicious because he started looking every where like something was going to happen at any moment. He then, settled his eye on the both of us.

"Hey, you're the guys with the phony ticket, ain't ya?" He asked us smirking.

Before Vivi's response, I said: "And you're the one who ran into us in the street aren't ya?"

"So what, at least I know a way into castle without a ticket!" He said in a cocky tone

Vivi was perked up at the statement. "You do!"

'_Oh boy' _I thought, knowing where this is heading.

The rat kid suddenly got a devious look on his face and grinned.

"I'll let both of ya in on it, if you become my slaves." He told us both.

"A-Alright!" Vivi blurted out, beating into the answer.

"W-WHAT!!?" I shouted stunned at Vivi.

The rat just laughed at me. "Too late, now ya gotta listen to every, little, word, I, say!" Need I say he enunciated those last words in a sinister tone?

"Stupid little rodent." I muttered under my breath.

"Now both of you watch that side for intruders!" The rat kid ordered, pointing to the alley opening.

Vivi eager to see the play ran over to the spot with me walking behind. As we searched for some 'people who won't be showing up' as I call it, I had to question Vivi.

"Vivi, why'd you go volunteer us for this?" I told him.

"W-Well, we both wanted to see the play, and we had no way to go in so…" He started to say but I held my hand up.

"It's okay, I understand, just warn me the next time you do that." I told him.

"Okay." He said.

"Hey, is anybody coming!?" The rat kid shouted behind us.

"No!" I shouted back at him, irritated.

"Awesome! Engage according to mission parameters!" He said walking towards the ladder that the worker had climbed down earlier.

Vivi and I looked at each other, then back at the little rat and said: "What?"

"The rat groaned and said "Just follow me!" And with that he took the ladder and ran further down the alley.

"Come on, we gotta catch up!" I told Vivi. We ran after the rat, passing several houses.

"Into the steeple!" We saw the rat running inside the mentioned place, with us coming in after.

The inside didn't look like much, although it had an arch with a ladder leading up to the bell tower above.

"Alright, once we get up there it's just moments away from the castle!" The rat kid proclaimed. But then, he backed up a little. "It's a little dangerous, you guys go first."

"Coward." I muttered, smirking at him.

"What was that!?" He yelled at me.

"Nothing." I said feigning ignorance.

I started to climb up the ladder until something white ad soft hit me.

"Whoa!" I cried out when that something blinded me and caused me to fall of the ladder. Lucky for me, I didn't climb far. I could hear that little rat laughing hysterically at me after my ordeal. I picked up whatever hit me in the face and saw that it was indeed a small, white animal. It had small wings, closed eyes, and a red pom-pom-looking thing on his head attached to a long white hair strand.

"I'm sorry, kupo!" It said flying out of my hands, it sounded like a small chlid.

"It's alright; I didn't know you were there." I groaned, getting to my feet.

Vivi ran up to me and asked "Are you okay?"

"I've been hurt worse than this." I answered with a smile.

He nodded at me and we turned to rat kid who was standing near the flying animal.

"This is Kupo, he's a moogle!" He introduced us to the moogle who replied with a 'kupo!'

"I'm Ron, this is Vivi." I introduced myself and the black mage who gave a small hello.

"Okay, now that we're all acquainted, time for some upward mobility!" The rat kid climbed up the steeple ladder with the ladder from the alley with just one free hand. As soon as he reached the top he said, "Okay, slaves come on up!"

I hated the fact he use that slave term with me and Vivi, I can't wait until we get to play so we can get off this servitude shtick.

"Hey, Kupo, you here?" Another voice similar to Kupo's, except it sounded more of an adult tone. Vivi, Kupo and I turned to see another moogle in gold armor with a bag of notes on his back walking towards us.

"Are leaving now, Stiltzkin, kupo?" Kupo asked.

"Yeah, it might be a long time before I come back." Stiltzkin said.

Kupo looked sad at that fact. "I'll miss you, kupo."

"Now don't worry, I'll be sure to write to you and the other moogles." He reassured Kupo.

"Okay!" Kupo beamed at the armored moogle.

Stlitzkin nodded. "Well, I'm off. Say hi to Mosh at the castle for me!" And with that, the adventure bound moogle left.

"Was that a friend of yours?" Vivi asked Kupo.

"A very special friend, kupo!" Kupo said in happiness

"He seemed liked a brother to me." I said to no one in particular.

"Hey slaves, I thought ordered you both up here! We're gonna missed the play!" The rat kid shouted from the tower.

"Let's go Vivi, before he pops a blood vessel." I said causing Vivi to chuckle a bit.

Vivi climbed first, followed by me. The rat kid ran up ahead across the rooftops, with me and Vivi trailing behind. As soon as we reached where a piece of plywood separated two rooftops together, Vivi suddenly froze.

"You feeling alright, Vivi?" I asked feeling concerned for him.

"Let me guess, fear of heights?" The rat kid teased Vivi. He was already across the roof, still holding the ladder over his head.

I glared at the rat, which sent a chill down his spine.

"H-Hey I was just playing around, heh heh." He stated nervously, and then turned to Vivi and said "Don't worry just pretend you're on the ground."

I nodded an approval at the kid, for being supportive for once.

Vivi approached the plywood, and slowly walked across the wood with no difficulty.

He breathed a slight reprieve afterwards, and then looked to me as I came over to him over plywood no problem either.

But to tell you the truth, I was scared falling as well.

"Okay, let's hurry!" The rat kid told us and then ran off again, we hurried as far as we can to find ourselves in the same predicament that we had a few seconds ago.

"Come on, kid it won't fall, it'll be just like last time!" The rat kid said, somewhat irritated at Vivi's fear of heights. Vivi started to cross again only to have the wood give away. But instead of the game having him jump at the last minute to save himself, he was going to actually fall off the plywood!

"VIVI!" I rushed over with surprisingly incredible speed and grabbed him, while tucking and rolling safely to the other side with our self-proclaimed master.

Both Vivi and I were panting harshly as tried to sink in all that occurred in the last five seconds.

"T-thank…. you, Ron." Vivi said hugging me while catching his breath.

"No…problem" I said patting him on the head, while catching my own breath.

"Okay, enough with mushy stuff, we gotta play to see!" The rat kid said in an unimpressed tone.

"Right, can you stand Vivi?" I asked rising to my feet.

"Y-Yeah." He got up dusting himself off.

We all ran near to where we need to get when the rat kid stopped to state something.

"Y'know, in all of this madness, we don't know each others names!" He said.

'_He's kidding right!? He's freaking dense!" _I shouted in my head. I then decided not to worry about it.

"My name's Ron." I said trying not to sound angry.

"I'm Vivi." He said.

"Ron and Vivi, weird names!" The rat kid chuckled. "I'm Puck, pleased ta meet ya!"

"And Puck's not a weird name?" I asked, look at him like he was crazy. '_His name makes me wanna hit him with a hockey stick.'_ I added as an afterthought.

"It's a great name!" Puck yelled in defense.

"Okay." I said not looking impressed, Vivi looking on laughing.

"Whatever, man!" Puck said throwing the ladder to make a bridge inside the castle walls. "Let's just get inside before the play starts!"

We all ran inside the castle getting ready for the start of the play. But I couldn't shake my sudden burst of speed I gained when I saved Vivi, was that some kind of power from that syringe?

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Whew, I finally got my story off the ground, hope I can keep it in the air!

Be sure to write and review, folks!

Also a special thanks to Galbatorix 0wnz and Katherine the Black Rose for looking over the chapter and noticing some errors, good looking out and I hope I fixed, if not please leave a message on my page.

Next chapter: The play begins, and so does the adventure!


	2. CH2: Play Rewrite

I got a couple of story subscriptions and a review, so at least some people is reading this and liking it!

Katherine the Black Rose: I glad you liked the opening chapter! I know I had some flaws, but it's a work in progress. Oh yeah, feel free to use the idea you stated in your review.

I hope someone else gets the urge to reading, and post reviews so I can make this into a proper story!

For this chapter, so I won't confuse the readers, I'm switching POVs starting from Ron's POV to a third person view.

Also, I plan to insert music into battles to make reading a little bit more exciting! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Square-Enix owns Final Fantasy 9, I don't, but I do own my Self-insert!

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**Chapter 2:**

**Script Rewrite: Escape on the Prima Vista!**

(Alexandria Castle- Courtyard) ---- (Ron's POV)

After our little rooftop run among the city, Vivi, Puck, and I make it inside the castle walls by nightfall. I heard that no one relies on men in Alexandria, which explain only ten male Knights of Pluto; the Captain having some cheap, rusty armor who yells a lot. And the rest of the Queen's army is female soldiers with a General who shows no mercy in battle, scary! Yet having this almighty army at your side, it can't prevent a shy, young black mage, a rat kid with a rude personality, and a man who got casted off into this world; pathetic if you ask me.

"Hey, Vivi." I turned to the black mage. "The guys performing the play are called Tantalus, correct?"

"Yeah, the man in the ticket booth told me before we left." Vivi responded. "Why?"

"Just need to know something." I said.

'_Which means they're here to get Garnet." _I thought, remembering the storyline.

The first thing I notice while trying get a good view of the stage, was that there were two moons, a blue one and a red one. I myself thought that was incredible, knowing other planets with more than one moon have no life on them!

"Over here!" Puck whispered to me and Vivi behind a back row of nobles, waving his hands.

Vivi and Puck may have had the luxury of running through the darkness undetected due to their short height, but I had to crouch and roll around the entire time when we snuck past rows of occupied chairs. We made our way to where Puck was and looked over the nobles to view the airship that housed the play that was starting: "I want to be Your Canary." Everyone of the audience clapped so Vivi, Puck, and I followed suit. I also took the chance of looking behind me at the balcony, where the royal throne was, to see if Princess Garnet was there. But I only caught sight of a fat, blue, and no question, an ugly face of the Queen Brahne, the Queen of Alexandria. I turned back around with a horrified look on my face, Vivi noticed.

"Ron, what's the matter?" Vivi whispered to me.

"You don't wanna know." I answered back to him.

Vivi nodded then returned to look at the stage, which had its lights turned out for a few seconds before it erupted into fanfare and fireworks from the orchestra. I can see some people stood up cheering and dancing a bit, I turned back around and saw Brahne dancing around the balcony. Vivi and Puck were also astounded by the display but, were able to contain their excitement, which seemed strange to me, kids their age would be happy about this, especially my baby brother.

After the fireworks and music died down, the platform which carried the orchestra lifted up, and revealed the actual stage where the performers would come from. Among the red curtains, a man dressed in king's robes appeared. He sported a pair of air goggled over his eyes, a beard and mustache, and two donkey ears that sprouted from the top of his head.

'_Baku!' _I thought, my mouth forming a small smirk.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Baku spoke addressing the audience. "Tonight's performance is a story that takes place long, long ago. Our heroine, Princess Cornelia, is torn from her lover, Marcus. She attempts to flee the castle, only to be captured by her father, King Leo. When our story begins, Marcus, having heard of this, crosses swords with the king. And now, Your Royal Majesty, Queen Brahne, Your Highness, Princess Garnet... ...noble ladies

and lords, and our rooftop viewers, Tantalus proudly presents 'I want to Be Your Canary'!

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(Third person POV) -------- (Behind the curtains)

"Bereft of father! Bereft of father! Marcus! Thou has lost even thy love!" A red-haired man with an outfit comprised of belts, plus another around his eyes, speaking in a Shakespearean while drawing his sword.

"Fortune hath escap'd thee! For what end shalt thou live?" A short, fat man wearing an iron hat, a brown, leather vest and shorts, and leather shoes speaking Shakespearean next, brought out a hammer.

"For the sake of our friends…" The last one spoke and stood up from kneeling position; he was a blonde man, wearing a blue vest with a white shirt underneath, blue pants, armlets with gray gloves and boots, and he had a tail! "Let us bury our steal in the heart of the wretched King Leo! Blank, Cinna are you with me?"

"Aye, Zidane!" Both his comrades shouted in agreement as they rushed out to the stage.

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(Out to the stage...) --- (3rd POV)

The three men rushed out to the stage, to the excitement of the audience, but to the dismay of King Leo, who was the man that introduced the start of the play, and his two guards: mask-wearing soldiers with metal clamps for hands. Opposing them, along with Zidane's group, was a swordsman like Blank. He wore a red bandana that covered his face from the eyes up, a blue vest with a leather strap across it, blue shorts, black armlets, and brown shoes.

"Marcus, we shall back thee, kinsman!" Blank addressed his fellow swordsman.

"Pray my comrades, sheathe thy swords! This villain is mine alone!" Marcus protested.

"Nay, kinsman!" Cinna argued. "For I, too, have lost a brother to this fiend!"

"What ho? Out, vermin! Away!" King Leo commanded readying his sword. "Thou darest bare thy sword before the king!? All who stand in my way will be crush'd!"

"Treacherous Leo, my kinsman's suffering shall not be in vain! Zidane shouted in defiance. "For I shall instruct thee in his incomparable pain!"

"Grr….CHARGE!!!!!" King Leo and soldiers charged into battle.

"ATTACK!!!" Zidane led his friends into the fray.

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(Battle Start, Play 'Feel My Blade'- Final Fantasy IX)

(Ron's POV)

X

X

X

X

"Medeo!" I heard Zidane shout, as I looked over the row of the nobles to see him summon a giant meteor which stopped King Leo's party from advancing towards his.

'_That meteor was a fake!' _I thought, looking at the pieces scattered across the stage. _'But I guess the actors had to make the battle more interesting by having magic incorporated in the play. Also explains the SFX on the game battle menu.'_

Yet, the audience especially Vivi and Puck were amazed by the display.

"Wow!" Puck shouted, looking at Vivi. "That meteor thing was awesome!"

"I know!" Vivi said excitingly as Puck. "Wish I could do that.."

After the 'meteor's' impact, Marcus and Blank saw their chance to take out the two guards who were stunned.

*Slash* *Slash*

In two strikes, both guards fell to their 'death', with Marcus and Blank standing over them, the crowd went wild. Even I was amazed, how they used the cover of Zidane's attack to launch a perfect sneak attack.

Cinna also ran through a blind side of King Leo's, and got in some lucky blows with his hammer; who knew a hammer could do so much a sword can't?

Unfortunately, it was pissing off the King as he raised his sword and yelled, "Taste steel, you hack!" as he went to strike down the man.

Cinna did all he could to duck and dodge Leo's onslaughts, but in one precise strike from the King, the hammer was swatted out of Cinna's hand off stage. As Cinna, went to retrieve his weapon while it was in mid-air, King Leo wasted no time in advancing to kill his enemy.

"Cinna, look out!" Marcus shouted to his comrade. The audience also added in there shouts of encouragement to Cinna, saying things like: "Watch out, Cinna!" or "Please don't die!"

*Slash* *Urrgghhh…*

It all fell on deaf ears, as Cinna fell to his own tragic 'death.' Some of the viewers started crying over it, including Queen Brahne who was in a fit of her own tears.

"Oh, man! He got 'em!" Puck said as he snapped his fingers in anger.

Vivi was wiping his eyes filled with tears.

Even I showed some sorrow, even though witnessing deaths on the game, it's nothing compared to actually seeing the death, even if it's a staged one.

Zidane, in a fit of rage, started flailing his daggers around so much even Leo couldn't read his moves. Little did he know, it was all a ploy as Marcus came in and struck the King on his side.

(End music)

King Leo ended up trying to retreat, climbing the stairs to the top of the stage castle's archway. "Arrg... Grr... Thou hast not seen the last of me, Marcus!" He shouted as he walked off stage.

"Come back here, Leo!" Zidane shouted as he gave chase…

Only to be blocked by Blank.

"Out of the way, Blank!" He yelled his former comrade. He slashed at Blank, only for the swordsman to evade by jumping onto the higher steps. "We have to stop him, while he's down and get revenge for Cinna!"

Blank shunned it all away. "Consider this, Zidane!" He informed Zidane. "If Prince Schneider were to marry Princess Cornelia, peace would reign over both their kingdoms! We can end this just by walking away!"

"'Tis foolishness!" Zidane protested. "If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"

I smiled at the scene beginning to unfold. '_The big sword fight scene!'_

(Play Vamo Alla Flameco)

"Come on, guys!" Puck shouted in enthusiasm "Let's get up front for this!"

He then rushed to the part of the audience area, where it was separated by red ropes.

"Come on, Vivi!" I said. "This is going to get good."

"Ok!" Vivi was excited about this as I was.

As soon as we reached where Puck was, Blank and Zidane arrived there to perform the fight scene. Although, it was going to be different since Zidane is using his daggers instead of a sword. As the two squared off….

"En garde!" Blank shouted.

"Expect no quarter from me!" Zidane returned.

Zidane started off with a double slice of his daggers, both of which Blank dodged by jumping over then stepping back. He retaliated by slashing over Zidane's head, in which the tailed warrior ducked under then flipped over backwards to avoid another. The audience was impressed by Zidane's flip, but what really won them over was when both Blank and Zidane crossed their weapons in a stand off. The action continued over another two minutes before…

"We shall finish this later!" Blank said, sheathing his sword while running into the castle.

"Come back here, traitor!" Zidane said giving chase.

Whlie they were running off stage, the crowd showered them with silver coins, both of which collected while running.

One of the coins, landed near me and I saw what it was: Gil.

Zidane came by, picked it up, caught a glimpse of my face and then did a double-take. He had a look that said: 'I know you from somewhere!"

"Uh…hi.." I said awkwardly, having a confused look on my face.

He was about to respond until….

"Hey, Zidane! Get over here!" Blank's voice brought him out of the conversation before it really got into it, then ran off after Blank.

(End music)

After he left I picked spare coins which 'happened' to be near me and put them in my pocket, I decided to count them later.

I felt a tug on my shirt, and look to see Vivi was doing that.

"Did he know you?" He asked me.

"Yeah, he sure looked like he recognized you, Ron!" Puck added.

"I… don't know." I said hesitantly.

'_This is impossible!' _I thought in shock. _'How does he know me when I haven't he met him face-to-face!'_

_*******************************************************************************************************_

(Third POV) (Inside the castle)

"Man that was too easy!" Blank said, after walking out of the armory with Zidane trailing him. Both of them had snuck into the castle armory, beat up two guards, stripped of their armor and put them on to disguise themselves as knights of Alexandria.

"Yeah, it was.." Zidane said while pondering something, Blank immediately noticed.

"Alright dude." He began "You been acting this way as soon as you came in here, what going on, we got a job to do?"

"Did you see a guy with two kids near our fight?" Zidane asked.

"Yeah, why?" Blank asked.

"Something seemed familiar about him, like I've met him before." He pondered.

"Whatever, man! Come on we gotta do this, the next scene already started!" Blank said peering out to the stage.

"Oh, right!" Zidane slapped his forehead. "Okay, I got the sleeping weed for the Princess." He said pulling out a light-green plant.

"And I've got the special surprise for our 'lovely' Queen, he he!" He laughed, then squirmed a bit. "Damn oglops.."

"Come on, the royal seats are upstairs." Zidane said running up the stairs with Blank following.

As soon as Zidane reached the top, a young woman wearing a white robe, with the hood covering her face appeared from the doors opposite the royal seats.

'_That's a funny looking out she's wearing' _He thought assessing the outfit.

"Umm..would you kindly let me pass?" She asked in a polite tone.

"Uh…sure." Zidane said, standing to the side.

She bowed slightly before walking again, then Zidane blocked her path again.

"Wait, have we met before?" He asked out of the blue.

"No, I do not know you.." She responded.

'_Whoa, first that guy back there, now this girl.' _He thought while looking over the woman.

"Maybe you're right." He pondered. "I wouldn't let someone as pretty as you get away. Say, you wouldn't…."

"Hey, what's going on, Zidane?" Blank interrupted, causing the girl to panic.

"I…I must go!" The girl ran past both men while knocking them over in the process.

Zidane recovered quickly, and ran to Blank.

"Get up, Blank, that was the princess!" He urged him.

"Are you sure?" Blank looked shocked as didn't realized it beforehand.

"Yeah, come on!" Zidane yelled giving chase to the princess, with Blank following after.

********************************************************************************************************************

(Thirty minutes later, back at the stage) (Ron's POV)

*********************************************************************************************************************

I was really getting into the play, and other things! First, I saw Garnet and Zidane swinging across the castle to the stage, then Steiner, who remember having the rusty armor, tried to follow them, but got out range into one of the airships propeller houses. I remembered there was a part where Marcus snuck into Princess Cornelia's bed chamber. Marcus almost made it until more of King Leo's guards reached him before he could climb up the balcony. He fought off as long as he could, but the numbers game caught up with him. The audience was devastated when that scene played out, including Vivi. Puck wasn't as shocked as everyone was, in fact he was snickering a bit. The nobles act like they never seen an actual play before, and they have money!

Now the scene goes to when King Leo is out on his throne pondering something.

"Tonight, I shall finally see my daughter Princess Cornelia betroth'd to Prince Schneider!" King Leo said to himself. "And then Prince Schnieder and

his kingdom will be mine! Gwahahahaha!"

And let me tell you, he has a silly laugh.

Just then, two guards, like the ones in the opening fight appeared. I notice they were the same actors from the opening fight but were passing themselves off as two new guys. And they had Marcus restrained and every one in the audience gasped.

"Your Majesty!" One of the guards spoke.

"We have caught an intruder!" The other guard finished.

King Leo walked over to Marcus and looked him in the eye. "Why, my poor Marcus!" He addressed Marcus in a fake, sorrowful tone. "Hark, lad. No matter how much thou dost treasure Cornelia... ...no matter how deeply she might believe she doth love thee... ...never shall I see her marry a peasant such as thee! When yon bell strikes three... Under the axe thou shall be!"

*BONG!*

*BONG!*

*BONG!*

"Furthermore…." King began, but was interrupted by Zidane and Garnet coming out of the stage trap door unexpected. They started whispering to Leo was surprised as well; I knew what was being said already. Then, I see Steiner coming out of another trap door looking confused as if that was news to me.

Steiner: "Ho? What's all this?"

I could barely hold my laughter since he was just standing there in front of the audience, acting like a fool.

Marcus finally breaks free of the guards and runs over to Garnet.

"Cornelia!" Marcus says sounding overjoyed to see her.

There was a short pause before Garnet spoke.

"Oh, Marcus!" She says overjoyed as well.

Another short pause…..

Then Garnet and Marcus embrace each other.

"Oh, Marcus! I missed you so!" Garnet puts on an impressive display acting as Cornelia. "I wish never to leave thy side. Prithee, lead me from this place!"

Zidane walks over to King Leo and says, "See, King Leo? Thou should'st give them thy blessing!"

King Leo erupts in anger, "Never! Never leave his side, thou sayest? Foolish banter! I'll not allow it! Cornelia shall marry none other than this man--Prince Schnieder!" He places a hand on Steiner's shoulder. "Is that not so, Prince Schnieder?"

Steiner looks horrified beyond belief and points to himself "M-Marry the princess? Me!?"

Then that's when I finally gave in to laughter, Vivi and Puck looked at me confusingly before turning back to the play.

"Aye! And this traitorous crew, I will put to death!" Leo commands as his guards get ready.

But Zidane and Marcus beat them to the punch, quite literally I might add.

One of them shouts, "Too many of them!"

The other says, "Run away!"

And both run backstage like scolded dogs.

"Pray, sweet daughter, come home to the castle with me." Leo says to Garnet.

Garnet shakes her head responding, "Nay, Father! I shan't return!"

King Leo looks distraught now, "Cornelia... Trouble me no more. This wedding is for thine own welfare. Be mindful of that."

"Not if I can help it!!!" Marcus draws his sword. "Now is my moment of vengeance! For my parents, and for my love, Cornelia... I shall cut thee down!"

He charges in expecting to strike the King…..only to 'stab' Garnet instead.

*Ngh!*

"No... Cornelia!!!" Marcus steps back in horror at the damage he has done to his love.

"Mar...cus, forgive me. I still love my father..." She gasps out looking over to Marcus.

"Princess!"

"Cornelia!"

Leo kneels down holding his daughter with Steiner down on his knees crying.

'_Doesn't he get this a PLAY!' _I thought shaking my head.

Garnet reaches out to Leo "Prithee, forgive my selfishness, Father, and spare my sweet Marcus..."

Her hand drops down as she plays dead.

"What have I done!?" Marcus looks down in sorrow. "Am I never to hear her loving voice again!? Am I cursed never again to feel her soft touch!? O, cruel fate! Thou hast robbed me of all I treasure!"

"Marcus, NO!"

But it was too late; Marcus 'stabs himself, to his 'death.

************************************************************************************************************

(In the audience) (Ron's POV)

Puck dances a bit saying "Wow, what a show!"

Vivi wipes his eyes full of tears, "Yeah, so sad..."

I place a hand on Vivi's shoulder telling him, "It wouldn't be tragedy without a sad ending, Vivi. Though I have to say, this is some great acting!"

"I'm glad we climbed all the way over here. How 'bout you guys, huh?" Puck looks over to the side seeing two knights running towards us. "Uh-oh! Look out!"

Vivi and I see the two knights as well and we run after Puck, who already has a head start.

We start to run in circles to confuse, but to no avail, suddenly Vivi trips on the red carpet where the Zidane's and Blank's fight scene took place.

"Vivi, you alright?" I run back to pick him up.

"Y-Yeah, t-thank you, Ron." He says shakily, getting up.

"Fools! I'm outta here!" Puck yells at us, while running to who knows where.

"Stinkin' rat!" I yell back. "Come on, Vivi!" We ran towards the stage where the sad scene is still taking place with the knights hot on our trail.

"Leave us alone!" Vivi yells at them, while we leap over Garnet's body.

Vivi pulls an old looking staff aiming at the guards. "Don't come any closer!" He threatens as he charges up some energy. I could feel his power bulinding up before he releases a fireball, but it nearly hits me and ends up hitting Garnet.

She suddenly jumps off the ground trying to put the fire out of her robe. "Ow! That's hot!" She yells out before throwing off her hood, exposing her true identity: a young woman having her black done in a ponytail, and wearing some kind of skin-tight rubber suit with a white shirt underneath, with brown gloves and boots. She also has a white rod strapped on her back and a crystal pendant around her neck.

"Zidane! It's time!" I heard Leo saying losing his stage accent after running off back stage. Zidane nods and turns to Garnet.

"Princess Garnet! Let's get outta here!" He tells her.

"What... What is going on!?" Steiner finally catches on to the situation…..sort of.

Garnet sighs before turning to the knight captain. "Steiner! Don't follow me anymore!" She tells him

"Captain, sir! We await your orders, sir!" One of the knights who chased me and Vivi on stage addressed Steiner.

"Hmmm... Well... Umm... Errr... Princess!" Steiner stammers, not sure how to act now. "I'm afraid I cannot comply!"

"Stubborn as always, aren't you?" She tells him.

"Come on, Princess." Zidane says. "Let's ditch Sir Rustalot and get outta here!"

"Princess, wait!" Steiner protests to no avail as she and Zidane goes over to Vivi and me.

"Hey, is the kid okay?" Zidane asks me.

"Yeah. He just tripped, that's all..." I trail off look at Zidane who gave that same look at the fight scene.

"Hey! You're…." We say at the same time before Steiner interrupts us…….

"Princess, I cannot allow you to go! Seize them at once!"

********************************************************************************************************************

(Play Battle theme 1 of Final Fantasy 9)

One of the knights rushes over to strike me down but I dodge every one of the slashes with ease.

'_This is like when I saved Vivi from falling of the rooftops!" _I thought recognizing my speed. Then I say, "Hey I don't want any trouble!"

"Should've thought about that before trying to steal the princess!" He tries to slice downward but by reflex, I catch the strike by the palms of my hands and stop him from moving.

"W-W-What!?" He stammers after seeing my gaze, I was really pissed off!

"I. Said. I. Don't. Want. TROUBLE! AERIAL DRIVE!" I yelled out in fury before giving him an uppercut which sent him flying, and then I jumped up meeting him in the air and drove my elbow down on his gut sending back down to the stage.

"Uhhh…." He groans after landing, and then he looks at me standing over him having that same look. "M-My fury ends here!" He runs back to the castle yelling fearfully all the way.

"Fire!" I hear Vivi yell, sending a more precise fireball towards the other knight who chased us and hit him dead on, knocking him off his feet.

"I-I'm gonna to be late for um…my date yeah! Later!" The other knight flees the fight as well.

"GET BACK HERE YOU WORTHLESS SCUM!!" Steiner yells at the fleeing knights as he fends off Zidane and Marcus. He pushes them off before running to me and barely slashing my arm.

"ARRRGH!!" I yelled out in pain before dodging another one.

"How dare you strike my knights!?" He yells while still pursing me.

"Hey, you made the first strike!" I yelled back, ignoring the pain.

He tries to come at me before my right starts glowing red; I looked confused before shrugging it off and running towards him. He defended with his sword, which I kicked out of his hands with my left foot and spinning in place yelling "DRAGON KICK!" which had my leg being engulfed in flames as I kicked Steiner , causing him to back step a bit before Zidane nicked him on his exposed left wrist.

"BAH! Only a flesh wound!" Steiner checking the damaged he sustained.

(End music)

I was surprised as every else as Zidane, Garnet and Vivi ran over to me with shocked looks on the latter two faces. Zidane actually looked impressed.

"Whoa, where'd you learn to do that!?" He asked excitingly.

"I have no idea." I said bewildered. "Ouch!" I remembered the pain on my arm which started bleed a bit.

"Wait a moment, please." Garnet said while charging up energy like Vivi did, but actually it had a good feel to it, guess it's because it's white magic.

"Cure!" She chanted. I saw a white sparkling cloud wrap around my arm as the pain slowly edged away, when it dispersed, the pain was gone and I stopped bleeding.

"Thank you very much, Princess!" I said giving her a slight bow.

She smiled and said, "You are most welcome!"

Suddenly, the airship shook as it slowly rose up out of the ground. I could hear the spectators say "AWWWW!" as they were disappointed in the sudden leave of the theater ship. Everyone outside tried to stay steady while the airship was in motion, with the exception of Vivi and Steiner who fell on their butts. Queen Brahne was not pleased when they saw we had her daughter leaving with us so she ordered her female knights to shoot harpoons at the ship. They were sticking to the airship from its back, causing it to hit some nearby buildings, and then another harpoon almost hits us on the stage as we scrambled away from the danger.

"Oh no! Look!" I see Garnet pointing over to a cannon above the queen.

"I take it's not a good thing?" Zidane asked Garnet.

She was about to respond when the cannon fired releasing a giant Bomb monster!

( Play Battle theme 1 again)

"Oh, damn…" I muttered as it showed up behind Steiner who was ready to fight again.

"Hey, look behind you, a bomb!" Zidane shouted.

"I won't fall for such an old trick!" Steiner said charging at Zidane. He dodged Steiner's attack and kicked him back towards the bomb that was slowly growing.

"As if that thing needs to be any bigger!" I yelled looking at the size of the living fireball.

"It's gonna blow, get away from it!" Marcus tried to convince Steiner

"Please Steiner, behind you!" Garnet pleaded as she healed Zidane's foot that throbbed in pain from kicking the armored knight.

"No! It's a trick!" Steiner argued as he rammed into Marcus with his helm and then charged in at me.

"I had enough of this!" I said running towards Steiner.

"Ron! Wait!" I heard Vivi say, but I couldn't stop, I wanted show Steiner how freakin' stubborn he was.

He tried to thrust his sword in my stomach, but I flipped over him, much to my surprise again, and landed behind him. I then caught his injured wrist and kicked the back of his knee causing him to kneel, and put him in the hammerlock which caused him to drop his sword again.

"Listen, man!" I yelled in his ear, causing him to cringe. "You think we're all liars, huh?"

"Yes, you impudent criminal!" He retorted back.

"Ok, first, I'm not a criminal; I got chased here by your dumb knights for no reason!" I yelled back, increasing the pressure of the hammerlock. "And two, if we're such liars, what do ya call THAT!?" I spun him around to see the bomb reaching maximum height. Steiner now looked more scared than I've ever seen him.

"That's a BOMB!" He said shaking in his armor.

"Are you sure?" I said looking like I don't care.

"Yes!" He yelled.

"Positive?" I said, still not caring.

"YES!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

"THEN GET DOWN!!" I yelled pushing down, and bringing myself down and covering my head.

*BOOOM!!!!*

(End music)

The Bomb monster exploded.

And yet…the airship still was moving away from Alexandria and everyone was alive!

"Is…everyone…okay?" Zidane asked.

Everyone gave their agreement.

"Good!" He said. "I guess we can get to….."

*CRASH!*

He was interrupted by a piece of the propeller falling down.

"That's not good!" I said looking terrified.

"No kidding!" He said back to me. "Everyone brace for impact!"

The theater ship started to wobble and altitude fast!

*CRASH*

The ship finally crash into a forest in an explosion that could be seen from far away.

*************************************************************************************************************

(Alexandria Castle) (Third POV)

Back in Alexandria, the queen sits in her throne.

"Garnet..." Brahne says in thought "I never imagined you would do such a thing. Perhaps you're not such a helpless little girl anymore..."

"Zorn!"

A short man dressed in a blue jester outfit appeared at the Queen's left side.

"Thorn!"

Another jester appeared, only this time, in a red suit.

"Is our little experiment ready?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. It is combat-ready!" Zorn informed her in a squeaky voice

"Easily terminate Princess Garnet, it can, Your Majesty." Thorn said, also in a squeaky voice.

"I need her alive!" She shouted, causing both jesters to jump. "Bring her back at once!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" They said and ran off.

"I will get you back Garnet!" She said in a sinister tone. "So the power to control the Mist continent will be mine! Bwahahahaha!"

*****************************************************************************************************************

Ron's techniques shown.

**Aerial Drive:** Ron gets inside his enemy's range then delivers an uppercut, which sends the enemy skyward followed by an elbow drop in mid-air.

**Dragon Kick:** A kick which has flames added to the force

**********************************************************************************************************************

Six hours of typing DONE!!

I hope I'm doing a lot better than this one!

Also, did I do alright with the battles?

Please R & R!

Next chapter: Ron and the gang encounter beasts and man-eating plants inside the deadly Evil Forest. Will they escape before becoming plant food? Find out in the next chapter: **Living Plants!: The Evil Forest. **

See ya around!


	3. CH3: Forest of Evil

I'm in good spirits ladies and gentlemen!

**Duelist of Dawn: **It's been awhile since my last update, but now I've got my brain working the ideas again after reading a lot more stories especially a FF12 story from lilpop8: **Our Adventure with the Final Fantasy Gang** check it out if you already haven't!

**Zidane: **Yeah, yeah; hurry up and get to the reviews and disclaimer so we can start this chapter already!

**Duelist of Dawn:** Calm down, monkey man! You're lucky I'm letting you into this new part of the intro before the chapter!

**Zidane: **(pulls out a dagger menacingly behind DoD's back)

**Duelist of Dawn**: Anyway thank you lilypop8 for your review; I'm happy the battle parts impressed you and the fact I do long chapters! To tell you the truth, I don't even keep track of how many pages I type!

And thank you avatarnarutobleach; I'm glad you like the story so far, hope you like this chapter too!

**Zidane: **The Duelist of Dawn does not own Final Fantasy 9, otherwise he wouldn't make up a fanfic based on the original storyline and add his personal character!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Alright you, let's start this chapter! (Drags Zidane by his tail)

**Zidane: **(flails around) Hey, hands off the tail!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Also this is in Ron's POV, enjoy!

***********************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 3:**

**The Evil Forest: When Plants Attack!**

(Somewhere in Evil Forest)

After the bomb monster exploded on the back of the Prima Vista, it crashed into the place where no one wants to end up in the Mist Continent: Evil Forest. Think about it: the name of this freaky forest says it all; so it would tell not too take this place lightly!

"Uhhh, my head…" I woke feeling like I was thrown up against a brick wall. Except, I was hanging on a tree branch by my stomach. "Well this is unpleasant, ow."

I tried to balance myself onto the branch so I could catch my breath and see where the airship landed. I happened to be a few miles from it when I saw the smoke blowing out from it.

_'Must've been on fire, hope everyone's okay.' _I thought.

Suddenly I heard a small snap coming from somewhere; I looked around to see the source only to not find it.

"Okay." I said. "I see no one coming, yet I still hear something breaking." Then it finally came to me, unfortunately too late…..

*CRACK!*

"AAHHHHH, OOF!!" The first sound was the branch that I was resting on breaking off the tree. The second sound was me falling and landing face first on the ground.

"That..wasn't fun." I groaned while pulling myself off. To my surprise, I still felt like I could keep moving despite not feeling 100%; I was probably 60, maybe 70% tops.

"At least the worst is behind me." I said trying to feel positive and walking towards the smoke.

*GRRRRR!!!!*

I tensed up hearing that growl behind me and I stood still trying not to do any sudden moves. I turn my head slowly and saw a dark brown furry creature that looked like a wolf.

"Oh, great!" I muttered. "The worst **IS **behind me, and it's a goddamn Fang!"

I tried to think of something quick, so I slowly turned around and faced the Fang who was still growling loudly.

"Hey, wolfie! I wouldn't do what you are thinking right now, so I would advise for you to walk away and look for some other fresh meat." I said trying to intimidate it.

Of course, my intimidation tactics didn't work; the thing only just growled at me more and was getting ready to strike.

(Play Through the Fire-Sonic and the Black Knight)

"Oh, well." I sighed and got into a fighting stance. "You were warned!"

The Fang just rush towards me to bite only to hit the tree I was in when I dodged it. I chuckled a bit before it straightened himself out and ran at me again. This time it came at my legs only for me to jump over at the last second, very high I might add.

_'Man, I never felt more prepared to fight in my life!" _I thought landing on my feet. On one side, that syringe got me more in tune in battling than defending myself from people that tried to harm me. But still there's the fact I'll end up dead if I don't stay focused.

The Fang howled at the sky before staring me down again.

_'Okay, why is it not attacking me?'_ I thought waiting on the Fang's next move until….

*GRRRRRR!!!*

I heard two more growls from both sides of me as stepped backwards to see two more Fangs knock heads and got into formation with the Fang I was fighting at first.

"You do know 3-on-1 is unfair game, right?" I asked sarcastically. One of the Fangs rushed and jumped over my head to surround me with its friends. "I had to ask."

All of them ran at me at the same time, I acted fast and stretch out my left leg and both of my arms to kick and punch all of them to the ground.

"You boys should never rush in first." I said seeing one of them getting up and trying to bite me only to get a bone crushing uppercut on the jaw, effectively killing it. "It'll kill ya."

The other two ran in only to get a backbreaker and a kick against the tree which killed them both.

I panted a bit before getting away from the area before it attracts more enemies of any kind.

(End Music)

"That actually felt good to that backbreaker," I said while running "At least I listened to the TV commercials when they said 'Don't try this at home.'"

I ran towards the smoke, seeing if I could find any sign of Zidane, Vivi, Garnet, or any of the Tantalus gang to see if they survived as well.

*EEEEEEEK!!!!!!*

I stopped when I heard a scream, a female scream which only meant one thing:

"That was Garnet!" I ran towards where the scream came from. "Maybe one of those monsters found her before anyone else did!"

I kept running to see a strange looking plant that had two long vines and tendrils that was trapping Garnet on top of it.

"Oh great, a Prison Cage!" I muttered before taking a chance to strike.

I jumped into the clearing and gave the plant a good roundhouse kick which stunned it a bit. Garnet struggled when it was teetering side to side before she was able to stay steady. She saw me and instantly lit up.

"I am glad to see you are not hurt!" She said.

"Yeah, sorry that I can't say the same thing." I replied looking over the monster still holding. "But I get you out of there!"

"Stay out of this!" I saw Steiner by my side ranting as usual. "I will not let you disgrace Alexandria by saving the princess!"

I was about to argue with him until I heard someone crying…

"Sh-she's in trouble…." I turned around to find Vivi trembling in fear as he saw Garnet trapped by the monster.

"Hey, Vivi!" I got his attention as he looked to me, still looking scared. "You can use you're fire magic to weaken this thing so we can get the princess out!"

"B-but I can't…" He muttered back, looking down.

"But Vivi…ergh!!!" I was cut short when a felt a sharp pain across my back that sent me down. The Prison Cage gave a giant whip against my back

"Ron!" Vivi said horrified at the impact.

"I'm…good." I manage to get out before raising myself up.

"What the hell is that thing?" Zidane finally shows up staring down the monster that just hit me.

"Glad to see you're alright as well." I said.

Zidane turned to look at me and gave a slight smirk.

"You think an airship crash is enough to keep me down? Ha!" Zidane said proudly while pounding his chest.

"I guess not, but let's save the chit-chat for later, Garnet's in trouble!" I informed him while assuming a boxer's fighting stance.

"Release the princess at once, vile plant!" Steiner shouted at the plant still in front of us.

"Yeah, like it's going to listen to you!" Zidane said sarcastically while pulling out his daggers. "Let's go!"

(Play Battle theme 1 of Final Fantasy 9)

As soon as Steiner, Zidane and I got ready, Zidane started glowing!

"What?" I muttered.

Zidane then started to be engulfed by a bright light reaching towards the skies. When it was done, Zidane's form changed. He still looked the same as far as his hair, face and tail was concerned, but the rest seemed to be covered in bright white and pinkish fur.

"Wh-what was that strange light that appeared?" Steiner was stunned at Zidane's transformation.

"I don't know." Zidane replied looking over himself. "But some how, I feel stronger."

"That must have been a Trance!" I suddenly blurted out.

"Oh, I remember!" Steiner looked at me. "Trance is induced by a surge of emotion!"

"Emotion?" I muttered. "Don't know which one per se, but if it'll help Garnet let's us that power, man."

"Alright, let's take him!" Zidane shouted.

Immediately, the Prison Cage raised both of its vines up defensively on its head, and aimed the points of them at Garnet. Then, purple strings of energy appeared in between Garnet and the vines as the Prison Cage looked even fresher as a daisy, while Garnet looked tired.

"Uh oh!" I said. Zidane and Steiner looked my way.

"What do you mean 'uh oh?'" Zidane asked me.

"I think that plant absorbed some of her energy!" I said.

"PRINCESS!!" Steiner charged in, sword getting ready to strike.

"No, wait!" It was too late, the plant ended up whacking him back near me with his vine.

"Don't rush this; otherwise he'll finish us all quickly!" I yelled at the knight.

"How do you suppose we rescue her, then!? He shouted back.

I looked at Zidane who was still evading the other vine.

"Hey Zidane! You have to use your Trance powers!"

"Like how? I can't get any closer to him!"

"Steiner! We got to block the vines so Zidane can get a clear shot at it!"

"How can I trust you?"

"You want to save the princess don't you?" I told him. He nodded. "Then we have to work together!"

"Fine." He muttered.

Zidane backed off the right vine as I went in to grab it with my arms and hands gripping it. Steiner then followed suit and stuck the sword down on the left vine to the ground. The Prison Cage yelped and tried to back free, both Steiner and I struggled to keep an open target so Zidane could rescue Garnet.

"Now!" I shouted while pushing the vine out of the way.

"Right!" Zidane closed his eyes and focused his energies until he started to glow blue, then he opened his eyes and stared down the Prison Cage.

"Free Energy!" The blue energy was guided by Zidane daggers and was shot out of them. The Prison Cage was met with multiple white shots to the face. It groaned out it struggled to get back on its feet.

"Let's finish this!" Zidane shouted as charged up another Free Energy attack.

Suddenly, the Prison Cage gave a shriek and used its vines to escape into the trees.

(End Music)

"Damn!" I stomped the ground. "It got away with Garnet!"

"Princess? PRINCESS!!!" Steiner shouted at the top of his lungs causing me to cover my ears.

"Aw man!" Zidane kicked up some dirt. "Where did they go?"

"She's gone..." Vivi muttered on the verge of crying again. "I was too scared to cast any spells... That monster's probably gonna eat her..."

Steiner eyes bugged out and dropped onto his knees "How could I let this happen!?"

"Don't worry you guys." I said causing Vivi and Steiner to look at me. "I'll bet she's not dead yet."

"Yeah, he's right!" Zidane agreed with me. "That monster was only a minion. He's probably gonna take her to his master."

"That means the princess might still be—"Steiner was suddenly to his feet with renewed hope. "Come! We must go find her at once!"

Then suddenly another Prison Cage swoops down as catches Vivi in the same place Garnet was.

"WHOA!!!" Vivi shouted as he was captured.

[Play Battle theme 1 of Final Fantasy]

"Vivi!!" I shouted as I ran to Prison Cage, only to be smacked down by the vines.

Zidane ran to me and pulled me away from the next attack form the giant plant.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said getting up. "These greenhouse nightmares don't quit."

"I hear ya." Zidane muttered "It won't be as easy as last time."

The Prison Cage the tried to absorb energy from Vivi like other one did Garnet. As soon as Vivi noticed this…..

"Leave me alone!" Vivi shouted as his hands were raised with magic sparking from them. "FIRE!"

Fire was expelled from Vivi and burned the Prison Cage causing it to shriek.

"That's it!"

"That's it!"

Zidane and I shouted that at the same time. We looked at each other, smiling.

"All we got to do is….." I began.

"….Let Vivi hit him with his fire magic…." He continued.

"…..And we'll distract him while he does it….."

"…..And damage him in the process!" We finished.

"Hey, Steiner!" I shouted to the knight behind me. "Just attack, Vivi's got this!"

"Huh, but you said…." Steiner tried to say was blocked out by Zidane.

"What does it matter!?" He shouted at Steiner startling him. "We got to beat that thing in order to rescue Garnet!"

Steiner just nodded and got his sword ready.

Prison Cage started to absorb energy but was stopped by my fist striking him on the side. I was able to back flip out of the way before it sent its vines after me. But that gave Vivi an opening to burn him again earning another shriek from the plant.

Zidane then ran towards it while baseball sliding to dodge an overhead vine swing. Then, he stabbed the Prison Cage with his daggers which gave Steiner the chance to chop off the left vine, causing the plant to shriek again.

"Everyone, get away!!" Vivi shouted as he charged up another fire spell. "FIRE!"

I noticed that the fire spell was bigger than the last one. _'He must've been focusing while Zidane and Steiner were attacking Prison Cage.'_ I thought.

Then, the Prison Cage finally collapsed to the ground, which freed Vivi from its head cage.

(End Music)

"Phew... Th-Thanks..." He said looking tired.

Zidane and I ran to Vivi and helped him to his feet, but he fell again.

"Are you alright?" Zidane asked him.

"Y-Yeah... I think so." He replied.

"Wow, Vivi!" I said looking impressed. "You totally saved the day!"

Vivi looked down adjusting his hat. "I wasn't that great…"

"Of course you were, you're……" I wanted to say but was startled by the Prison Cage getting up.

"Everybody! Get away!" Zidane says pushing me over to the side, causing me to catch myself by grabbing a nearby tree.

The Prison Cage then sprays a green, noxious-looking gas at Zidane, Vivi and Steiner. Zidane was able to jump over the spray, but Vivi and Steiner ended up choking as the gas reached them. The Prison Cage shrived up to nothing, while Vivi fainted.

"UGH!" Steiner struggled to stay awake. P-Prin...cess..."

But he could hang on as darkness clouded his sight and passed out.

"Oh great!" I ran back checking Steiner for signs of life, as Zidane did the same to Vivi. "What happened just now?!"

"A plant monster's dying ace." Zidane said picking up Vivi.

"Huh?" I said looking at him, after checking that Steiner was alive.

"Whenever a plant monster dies out, they spray seeds out in a gas towards their killer." He informed me. "Then after some time, the seeds sprout and start to eat the host from the inside out."

I looked like was going to throw up at the thought of that information.

"Glad we made it out." I muttered.

"Yeah, but we got to get these guys to back to airship." He started to walk in the direction he came from. "My friend Blank has some medicine that will stop the seeds and kill them before they sprout."

"Right!" I said lifting Steiner up on my shoulders, and surprisingly without any difficulty.

Zidane bugged out when he saw me walking up to him with Steiner in tow.

"How can you lift him up, with all that heavy armor on him!?" Zidane asked me.

I chuckled a bit before answering him. "You think these muscles are all for show?"

"Hmm, guess not." He said but still thought, _'But how can he still lift him up without any fatigue after fighting those two plant monsters.'_

"You know, in all this chaos we been in, I didn't catch your name." Zidane said looking at me.

"Because I never threw it anywhere." I replied, smirking.

"Funny guy!" He said sarcastically. "Alright spill; who are you, and on another note, how can you do all of those abilities you did back at the play?"

"My name's Ronald Harris, but call me Ron." I formerly introduced myself. "As for my abilities, I'll tell you as soon as we get out of here, 'cause to tell you the truth, I just got these moves before reaching Alexandria."

"Okay, I'll hold you to that." He told me. "'Cause another thing that bothers me is that I have a feeling that I've seen you before!"

"Hmm, I don't remember you." I said looking upward. "So I really don't have a comment on that."

"Right." He muttered as we continued on our way.

***********************************************************************************************************************

(Prima Vista-Crash Site)

At the sight of the wrecked airship, only one word came to mind"

"DAMN!!" I shouted.

"Yeah, I had the same reaction when I got thrown off by the crash impact!" Zidane chuckled.

Two men came out of the airship and saw us with Steiner and Vivi. They ran out to meet us, and it turned out to be those guys playing guards to Baku's character: King Leo.

"Zidane!" One of them shouted.

"Where the heck where you?" The other one shouted.

"Hey Benero and Zenero." He greeted the twins. "I was looking for survivors and found these three." He gestured towards me, Steiner and Vivi.

"Man, what happened to you guys?" Zenero asked looking over the various bruises we sustained over the fight.

"Yeah, looks like you went five rounds with a Behemoth!" Benero exclaimed.

"Long story short," I began. "We all went two rounds against two giant plants, one escaped with the princess, while the other one died trying to plant four more gardens, only succeeding in planting some inside the boys we're carrying."

"Then we better get them that medicine Blank made!" Benero said pulling out a purple vial.

"What's that?" I asked pointing at the vial while trying to hold Steiner on my back.

"This is the medicine we were talking about!" Benero said. "A drink of this removes the seeds that are planted in the host's body!"

"Okay, I bring the little guy to Blank, since I think he has more of that stuff." Zidane said carrying the black mage inside the Prima Vista.

"In that case, you," Zenero turned to me, "Follow us."

"Okay." I nodded.

I followed the twins inside. Everywhere, the place had a lot of things scattered around and the orchestra band were sitting around either talking amongst themselves or tuning up their instruments.

"Man, and I thought outside of this place looked bad." I thought out loud.

"Yeah, but at least we're all alive." Benero said sounding positive.

"And as soon as the boss is ready, we'll be out of here safely." Zenero said as equally as positive as his twin.

"It might be hard with everyone not exactly being fighters." I said looking at the musicians.

"Don't worry we'll protect them when the time comes!" Zenero said raising an arm up.

"We're here." I looked over Benero to see a door to a storage room.

"We let the knight rest here so he can recover with the seed medicine." He informed. I nodded in response.

"Ughh…." I felt Steiner moving around so I decided to set him down on the floor. He got up, just hunching over some, must still be weak from the seeds inside him.

"Princess... I'm coming right now..." He started to walk the opposite way we were. I stepped in the way blocking his path.

"...Stand aside!" He tried to shout but ending up coughing out.

"Listen man, you can't go anywhere in the state that you're in." I told him. "You have to heal first!"

Benero turned him around and shoved him towards the door. "Room in front of you. Go."

Steiner turned around facing us. "The princess...is in grave danger! Do you intend to ABANDON HER!?" He shouted before catching his breath.

"Like this guy said: You're in no condition to be going anywhere." Benero told him.

"Don't worry about the princess. The boss'll think of something." Zenero assured Steiner.

They turn him around...

"Hey! Stop!" Steiner protested.

...and push him into a room.

"Get some rest." Zenero said.

"Yeah, and take that medicine I gave you." Benero added.

"He's a real piece of work." I heard someone walk towards me as I turned around. I saw Marcus approaching the twins and me.

"He is, but it's mostly concerned for Princess Garnet." I told Marcus. "Just wish he could learn to take care of himself before taking care of others."

"I bet he's to hard-headed for that." He thought out loud. "Oh, I'm Marcus by the way." He extended his hand to me.

"I'm Ron, nice to meet you." I took his hand in a handshake.

"You're the guy who chucked those knights out of the stage." He realized. "Nice work!" He gave a thumbs up.

"Hey, a man's got to defend himself, especially for when some stupid knights attack you for no apparent reason except watching a play!" I waved my hands in defense.

Marcus laughed a little. "I guess, so that's how you and the little guy ended up on the airship?"

"Me and Vivi, yeah." I answered him. Speaking of which, where is he?

"He's resting in the room, down the hall." He pointed to a hallway. " Zidane's probably talking to him right now.

"Okay, see ya around guys." I waved as I walked down the hall in question.

When I reached the door, I found Zidane and Blank talking about something, so I decided to eavesdrop….

"…..I'm gonna take that knight, the black mage and that fighter and find the princess." I heard Zidane say.

'_At least he didn't insult me on my skills.' _I thought satisfied with the comment.

Blank looked shocked. "You're crazy! Man, you don't even know what's out there. Even with that muscle-head of a fighter, you guys will get killed.

Besides, there's no way the boss'll allow that."

'_Yep, there goes the insult!' _I thought with a vein about to burst on my forehead

Zidane: "I know..."

Blank just sighed knowing full well there was no stopping Zidane once he decides on something. "Sheez... Why do you always gotta play hero? The boss is gonna kill you. Well, what are you waiting for? Go talk to the boss."

Zidane went to walk past Blank until he saw me…

"Hey, Ron!" He said, then looked at the annoyed look I was giving out. "You heard all of that?" He pointed at Blank and himself.

"Yup!" I said, and then turned to Blank. "And for your information, _Blank_, if I was nothing but muscle, there would hardly be a chance me and Zidane returning without being plant mulch!"

Blank raised his hands in defense. "Okay, okay, sorry for the muscle-head comment. By the way, I do you know my name?"

'_Oops! Way to go, stupid!' _I berated myself, but then I thought of something else…..

"Well, if everybody's names are the same as the stage names, it's not the hard to figure out." I said looking sure of myself.

"Actually, you're right." Blank said.

'_I was right about that fact!?" _I thought, and to tell you the truth I've been pondering that fact when I played game to grab just about every item.

"Except, our boss isn't named Leo." Blank added. "It's Baku."

"Didn't know that." I said, not trying to jump the gun on the personal info, and then I turned back to Zidane. "So you just decided to find Garnet?"

"Yeah." Zidane said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Why couldn't you just find her right now?" I asked wanting know the full detail.

"'Cause it's a rule of among Tantalus: You decided to go out against the boss, you have to fight to see if you're ready to leave."

"A test to see if you're ready to face the world on your own." I deciphered.

"That's the idea." Zidane finished. "Later!"

Zidane walked to find Baku to battle him.

"I guess I better go and catch this." I said following them.

"You want to Zidane get clobbered?" Blank asked.

"No, I like to see a good fight!" I said, pumping up my fist as I left.

'_And I thought Zidane was crazy for venturing out for a girl.' _Blank thought walking upstairs.

****************************************************************************************************************

(5 minutes later)

I found Zidane in the airships cargo hold, just in time to see him getting ready for his duel with Baku, now out of his King Leo outfit and into his normal wear: a pliot's cap with goggles, a white shirt under a red vest, and a blue pair of pants.

(Play Dragonball Z Budokai theme- Running to Victory)

"I ain't holdin' back!" Baku yelled while drawing his sword.

"Just like you did against me and the boys on our way to Alexandria?" Zidane taunted grinningly.

Baku tried to run towards Zidane, "This will shut you…."

*THUD*

Only to land face first on the floor.

The sight was hilarious and caused everyone in the room to chuckle under their breath.

"Urgh…WHAT ARE YOU BOZOS LAUGHING AT!!?" Baku roared out causing everyone to shut up.

Zidane took his chance and swiped his daggers to Baku's large stomach. But instead holding it pain, Baku just laughed it off.

"Gwahaha! That tickles!" He must have some protective padding under his shirt, either that or he's resilient, no wonder he's the boss. "Now, my turn!"

He ran again only to trip up some, turn around slightly and fell backwards to knock heads with Zidane…..hard!

"OWWWWW, my head!!" They both shouted grabbing their throbbing heads.

'_This fight is more humorous than intense' I_ thought holding back another laugh.

They started to lock eyes and stepped back and ready their weapons again.

Most of the fight was Zidane getting small hits, while Baku was getting lucky every now then, as he kept tripping and unintentionally crashing into Zidane, which surprisingly had its share of results.

Zidane came in again trying to get another shot at the stomach, until Baku ended up slamming his sword down causing Zidane to sidestep and catch a kick to his gut, sending him away Baku.

"That had to hurt!" I heard a guy carrying cymbals talk.

"Yeah, but we know it ain't over; Zidane's just playing around like he usually does." Another guy with a trumpet said.

Zidane got up and ran around Baku, confusing him. "Hold still, will ya? He said raising his sword.

That gave Zidane the opening he needed as he kicked Baku in the ankles, sending him to the floor again.

"Is that all you got?" He muffled out, with his face to the floor.

Zidane answered by jump on his back, making his former boss yell "OUCH!"

"Had enough yet?" Zidane taunted.

Baku got up, catching his breath then sheathed his sword.

"Alright, you win." He said, dusting himself off.

Zidane gave me thumbs up gesture, which I returned.

(End music)

Baku then walks up to Zidane."I'll be damned... Bravo!"

*Oof…*

And gives Zidane a congratulatory punch to the gut, yet Zidane still stands

"Go find your princess! Gwahahahaha..." Baku laughs as he leaves the room.

As soon as that happens, Zidane drops to his knees and yells, "Damn, that hurt! He pulled his punches 'til that last one."

"Yeah, no kidding!" I say, helping him up.

"Well, at least he didn't stomp on me like the last time I left." He says, sheathing his daggers.

"And you still put up with him?" I asked bewildered at his statement.

"He may not look like it, but he raised me as a child when I had nowhere to go." He told me in a sincere tone.

"Oh…" I realized.

"Well, let's get Vivi and that knight so we can find Garnet." He said cheerfully.

I nodded and led him to the room where Steiner was kept. We saw him sleeping against a broken table, holding a doll.

"..Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz." And he snores very loud for a 'proper' knight.

"Come on." Zidane woke him up. "You're too old to be playing with a doll."

"Silence! A scoundrel like you could never understand!" Steiner shouted, causing me to cringe. "I'm just overwhelmed with concern for the princess! If only you two and your rogues hadn't kidnapped her... This is all your fault!" He pointed to me and Zidane. "If anything should happen to the princess, I will have both your heads!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" I jabbed a finger to his chest. "I'm not a part of this; me and Vivi got thrown on to this whole fiasco by your stupid knights! We just came to watch the play!"

Steiner narrowed his eyes and stood up over me. "If you didn't try to abduct the princess, why did you cause harm to my men!?"

"You expect me not to defend myself and Vivi?" I said narrowing my own eyes. "I didn't want Vivi to get killed!"

Steiner then calmed down. "My apologies, young man."

"You see, you gotta take it easy." Zidane stepped in. "Geez... We're gonna go look for the princess now. I'll let you come with us if you promise to be good. What do you say, Rusty?"

Steiner then turned red with anger and fury.

'_Oh boy…' _I thought seeing where this was going, I covered my ears to prepare myself for the 'fireworks' that was about to take off.

"RR...RUSTY!!!?" Steiner shouted his lungs out. "I am Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto, and I will never work with you conniving thieves!"

"Captain?" Zidane questioned. "I figured you were a private, what with that cheap, rusty armor... Look, this has nothing to do with Tantalus. It's something I decided to do on my own. I just wanna save Garnet."

"And you?" Steiner asked me.

"Huh?" I asked.

"Why are you rescuing the princess?" He asked crossing his arms.

"I owe her for healing me back at Alexandria." I answered, truthfully. "Plus, I don't want her become plant food as much as you or Zidane."

Steiner just shrugged a bit. "Hmph...! You two had better not be lying! Because if you are, I won't hesistate to kill either of you!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm counting on you, Rusty." Zidane just shrugged off the comment.

"Make no mistake. I'm only going with you to rescue the princess! I'll deal with you personally when this is over!" Steiner declared.

"...Whatever." Zidane and I said.

"It may be difficult with just the three of us. We should seek Master Vivi's help as well." Steiner pondered.

"'Master?'" I asked.

"Why are you calling him 'Master'?" Zidane said.

"You fools. That black mage has unimaginable powers... I don't want to get him involved, but alas, it can't be helped. We need Master Vivi's help to rescue the princess." Steiner told us.

"He's right. Vivi's fire magic is very effective against the monsters in here, especially if we run into more plant-type monsters like those Prison Cages." I added.

Zidane was convinced. "Alright, let's go talk to Vivi."

We all walked out of the storage room and walked to the room Vivi was in. And he was very happy to see me.

"Ron!" He shouted as he hugged my leg. "I glad you're okay!"

"Nice to see that you're well, also." I patted his head.

"So, what are you guys doing here?" He asked us.

"Well, Vivi, we're ready to go look for the princess." Zidane answered.

"Really!?" He said excitingly. "That's great! Be careful, okay?"

"Actually, Vivi, we all want you to come with us, too." I told him, kneeling down to him.

"Huh!? B-But I can't do anything." Vivi protested.

Steiner stepped up to him. "Hardly, Master Vivi. Your magic was highly effective against that monster." He then pointed to Zidane. "In all honesty, I hold your power in greater esteem than I do this scoundrel's."

"Yeah, if I was able to do what I did against the knights, we wouldn't be in this deep, so we need your help." I added.

Vivi started looking to the ground. "B-But...I'm scared. I couldn't even move last time."

Steiner then got on one knee. "Please, Master Vivi. For the sake of Princess Garnet and all of Alexandria, I humbly request your assistance!"

"Come on! You're a black mage, for crying out loud!" Zidane placed a hand on his shoulder. "Show us what you've got!"

"...Okay. I'll...try my best." Vivi nodded.

"Alright, let's get going." Zidane walked out of the room.

Steiner rose up to his feet. "Thank you, Master Vivi."

"Yeah, thanks man!" I said leaving out as well. I was almost out the door when I heard Steiner and Vivi talking.

"Master Vivi..."

"Yeah?" Vivi responded.

"It's about your black magic. I wish to try an experiment. Steiner bent down and whispered something into Vivi's ear.

Vivi: "Magic sword...? Okay. I'll give it a try."

Then they both leave to catch up with Zidane, I was walking side-by-side with Steiner, when I spoke to him.

"A magic sword technique, huh?" I asked curiously.

"Yes, how did you know?" He asked staying calm for once.

"I heard Vivi say 'Magic Sword' on my way out." I told him. "It should be more effectively than just casting magic on the enemies, seeing as a physical attribute is added to it."

"Exactly, the reason why thought to try this out." Steiner said proudly.

"Cool! If I can get my techniques working properly, we should be able to rescue Garnet in no time!" I said excitingly.

"Yes, about your fighting skills, how were you able to do that without a need for weaponry?" He asked outright.

"I tell you once we get out of here, I'll be able to tell everyone then, deal?" I said.

"Deal." He concluded.

During our talk we reached Zidane talking to Blank near the exit. Steiner passed by the men while I waited with Zidane.

"Sheez...you really dig her, huh?" Blank asked Zidane.

"I can't sit around knowing a girl's in trouble. Goes against my nature." He answered nonchalantly.

Blank scoffed. "Whatever. You're full of crap."

Zidane smirked and looked Blank dead in the eye. "Ohhh.... I get it. You're jealous that I'm gonna get me a sweetie pie."

"Pshhh... She's not even my type. I came down here to give you this." Blank held out a familiar purple vial.

Zidane crossed his arms with the same smirk."You're always thinking about me...but I won't need a love potion to reel this one in."

Blank groaned. "Why don't you get your mind off girls for a second? This is the medicine I gave to that black mage and the knight. It's sort of like a seed remover."

Zidane took the vial and pocketed it. "Cool. This'll really come in handy."

"Why am I always helping you...?" Blank wondered.

Zidane waved as he left the airship. "Thanks, Blank. I'll see you when I see you."

"How about never?" Blank yelled.

"Thanks a lot, Blank." I gave him my hand in respect.

He shook it then walked back in the airship.

"Yeah, yeah, just don't get killed out there, man." He said.

I sighed as I met up with Zidane and the gang.

"Let's get going!" Zidane said.

We all nodded as walked deeper into the Evil Forest.

***********************************************************************************************************************

Another chapter well done!

Next chapter:

**Ron:** Man how long is this damn forest?

**Zidane: **Look its Garnet!

**Vivi: **Oh no! What's that thing in front of her.

**Steiner: **Do not fear, princess! Captain will vanquish this foe!

**Ron: **Next time: **Rescue and Escape from the Evil Forest!** See ya then!

And don't forget to R&R!

Later!


	4. CH4: Escape the Forest!

**Duelist of Dawn: **I have returned with a new chapter! And thank you lilypop8 for another review!

**Steiner: **Just get on with story, peasant!

**Duelist of Dawn: **What!? You!? Aw, come on! The union of Final Fantasy sent you to help me!?

**Steiner: **Of course, you scoundrel! Apparently, that wretched monkey was late, so they had someone more….honorable to fill in for him.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Whatever, Captain Rusty.

**Steiner: **Grrr!!! WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!???

**Duelist of Dawn:** Will you shut up already!? The folks are here! [Points to reader audience]

**Steiner: **Uhhh……

**Duelist of Dawn: ***sweatdrops* (I don't believe this) I don't own Final Fantasy 9 or any other music I use for battles, otherwise Buckethead over here would have some better armor so he wouldn't be called Rusty.

**Steiner:** SHUT UP!!!

**DoD superkicks Steiner in the face, KO'ing him.**

**Duelist of Dawn: On with the show people! (**And to think he, overreacted from a compliment inside an insult)

******************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 4:**

**Rescue and Escape from Evil Forest!**

**(**Evil Forest-Random Trail**) **(Ron's POV)

It's been a couple of hours since Zidane, Vivi, Steiner and I left the ruined Prima Vista and the Tantalus group. I was just glad only one of us had to fight for a whole group to leave in search for a princess that's being held captive by psycho killer plants. At least it's not the traditional 'slay the dragon' rescue, otherwise I know I'd be barbecued even with my new and improved fighting skills. We took the path where Vivi said that he and Garnet had run from there, after running into that first Prison Cage. After that, it was just following a blank trail that any of us had no idea where to go.

"Man, as if I couldn't hate this forest any more." I say, walking through some trees. "We just had to get lost!"

"Well, it wouldn't be easy!" Zidane says, cheerfully. "Besides, we'll beat whatever comes our way!"

"But, Zidane, the princess is still in trouble!" Vivi says worriedly.

"Master Vivi is right!" Steiner yells at Zidane. "Every moment we spend fooling around, the princess is close to her demise!"

"Chill out, Rusty!" Zidane says in a nonchalant manner. "Garnet will be okay!"

"And it'll be even better once we can find our way out of this horror house of a garden!" I add in.

"Why not go this way?" Vivi points to a more visible path, which actually look more of a walkway since it didn't have any grass growing. Steiner, Zidane and I beamed at the sight of the path.

"Bravo, Master Vivi!" Steiner said proudly.

"Alright, Vivi!" I say, giving Vivi a pat on the head.

"Yeah, Vivi, thanks!" Zidane says. "Now we won't get lost any more!"

We spent more time walking finally on the right path, little did we know some vines were moving around the trees, sensing our movements. We ran into more Fangs, and also some Goblins; which were some dagger-wielding bandits that were Vivi's height on the way. But Vivi basically torched them all, not wasting much energy, thank God that every monster and beast is vulnerable to fire, so everyone could really save all of our energy for fighting stronger monsters and the plant master to save Garnet.

Along the way, we walked into an area that was void of any monsters, and in the middle was a spring of clear blue, sparkling water.

"Hmm, no sign of any monsters." Zidane said as he surveyed the area, he turned to look the spring. "Hey, let's rest here everyone."

We all sat down by the spring, each taking a drink which felt very refreshing and at the same time, rejuvenating. Then, we all ate a little of the provisions Zidane was able to grab from the Prima Vista before we left out. After a few minutes of relaxing…..

"Alright, we should leave now." Zidane announced.

"Yes, we must make haste to rescue the princess!" Steiner shouted. As we all stood up, I finally remembered something…..

"Oh, yeah I almost forgot!" I said as I reached to my side and grabbed some canteens which were around my neck.

"Where'd you get those?" Zidane asked me.

"I found a ton of these things in that big pile outside the airship. I thought it would be good to take some with us in case we find clean water!"

"Great thinking!" Zidane said. _'Of course Cinna will end up charging me for them!' _He added as an afterthought. _'Oh well.'_

We all gathered water from the spring and headed out. After that, we thought no more monster were showing up. Unfortunately, we did, and ran into some more powerful monsters than the Fang or Goblin….

There were two giant flowers floating towards us, white petals but with a red center and two thin tentacle-like roots extending from the bottom of the petals.

"Whoa!" Zidane said in awe of the flying flowers. "How can a flower do something like flying?"

"I agree, I would think any plant monsters would stay grounded." Steiner pondered while readying his sword.

"Why?" Vivi asked.

"A flower would gain nutrients from the soil in the ground." Steiner answered. "That's how a normal flower or any other plant grows stronger every single day."

"Yeah, a normal flower and/or plant would, but these ain't normal flowers, they're Dendrobriums." I said, getting my fists up.

"Dendrobiums?" Zidane asked me.

"Yeah, flower monsters that can also draw upon wind magic, it's also how they're all able to fly without difficulty." I informed the group, keeping my eyes on the flying flowers.

"How do you know that?" Steiner asked suspiciously.

"I read books, don't you?" I asked sarcastically, which also pissed off Steiner but before he could say anything the Dendrobriums started to advance toward us.

"Move!" Zidane yelled and everyone fanned out as the flowers tried to use their tentacles to grab all of us, but thanks to Zidane's warning we escaped in time. Zidane tried to swipe at it with both, but the flower just ascended causing him to crash into the ground. I ran to him to pick him up while he spit some dirt off the ground, which I found a little funny.

"You okay, dude?" I say, snickering a bit.

"Yeah." He groaned out, and then caught me snickering. "Shut up, Ron."

It only caused me to laugh more as I found Steiner swinging his sword at the flowers, trying to give Vivi some cover to use his fire magic. Vivi was able to cast it on both of them, which caused them to flail about, but only for a little while. Next, the both flowers started to start to sparkle a bit, and then suddenly the wind picked up a bit. That when I noticed it was that wind magic was being cast by those Dendrobiums, the distinguishing thing about the wind magic was that it was visible and green. And it must have been painful, because of instead of Vivi and Steiner being blown away by the miniature tornadoes surrounding them, they were being sliced by them, getting minor cuts on Vivi's clothes and Steiner's exposed ankles and wrists.

"Come on!" Zidane told me running towards the flowers, with me following. We were able to stop the wind by Zidane cutting one of the flower's tentacles which caused to cringe, and me grabbing both of the other flowers and yanking it down to the ground and stomped on it. Steiner and Vivi were able to recover by drinking some blue potions.

"Master Vivi!" Steiner turned to Vivi, his sword extending towards Vivi.

"Right!" Vivi shouted as he turned to Steiner. He started to cast something on Steiner's sword and afterwards the shined brightly and Steiner ran towards the Dendrobium that Zidane attacked and slashed it on the petals that left a red cut on them. As Steiner cleared away, the cut burst into flames and turned the flying flower into ash.

"Cool!" Zidane and I shouted at the work Steiner and Vivi did with the newly dubbed 'Sword Magic.'

As we celebrated, the flower I was standing on rose up under my feet, knocking me down and trying to fly away.

"Oh no you don't!" I shouted. I ran after it, as the flower flew over Steiner which I jumped on his head and jumped right off and caught the flower by the roots. The Denodrobium tried to shake me off, but all it did was just swing me back forth by its roots, mainly from the fatigued it suffered earlier. I started to use the momentum of the swinging and as soon as I was able to see a long tree branch coming up as I swung back, I stretched my legs out to swing forward again to wrap the roots around the branch. But I lost my grip and was swung into the air about 15 feet above the Denodrobium.

'_Oh, man!' _I thought, as I started to fall head first. _'I can't die yet!'_

Then, I saw my left foot glowing green and air started to wrap around it. I looked down at the flower and back at my leg, then came with an idea that would kill the flower monster while it's trapped and save me from falling to my painful death. I flipped in mid-air so my feet was facing the ground and extending my left leg out and starting spinning with the green wind wrapping around me.

"AIR STOMP DRILL!!!!" I shouted as I struck the flower by the center and drove it into the ground, dead. I had landed on my left foot and crouched down on my right knee, breathing heavily from the near-death experience.

"Whew!" I shouted. "I was almost compost for these stupid plants!" Then I saw the ground around the dead plant and saw vines sprout around it.

"Whoa!" I shouted again as I dived out of the way and saw the vines take the dead plant remains into the ground. "Guess that's how they use their own kind as soil."

"Hey, Ron! You okay!?" I heard Zidane shout as he, Vivi and Steiner ran up to me.

"Yeah! I even killed that plant I jumped on, too!" I said getting up.

"Yes, which reminds me…" Steiner walked to me and grabbed me by the shirt and shouted, "WHY DID YOU JUMP ON MY HEAD!!!!!!??"

"Well, excuse me from saving your ass from that mini-tornado and killing that flower so it didn't bring any reinforcements!!" I shouted back as I took his hand off shirt.

"AT THE EXPENSE OF MY HEAD!!?" He shouted again.

"Sure, whatever!" I said, turning and walking down the path again, smirking.

As the rest of the gang started walking after me……

"Grrr….I'll have his head!" Steiner said.

"Please, Steiner calm down, you know he did that because it was the only way to catch that monster." Vivi said trying to calm down the angry knight.

Steiner then calmed down. "My apologies, Master Vivi. I just wished that upstart showed some respect for his elders."

"Well, come on Rusty, we gotta catch up with Ron! You too, Vivi!" Zidane cut in, slapping Steiner on the back, while walking after me.

"Speaking of scoundrels…" Steiner growled as he and Vivi started catch up with me and Zidane.

We all reached an entrance to a cave with roots visible on the ground. We noticed that they were moving a bit, absorbing nutrients underground. We also noticed a hissing sound coming from inside the cave. I took a peek inside, and saw that the tiny vines outside was connecting to larger ones and they were connected to a large red flower, even bigger than those flying ones we defeated earlier. It had a mouth just inside the flower with three antennas just outside it. It also had four large, grey, tree-like tentacles with thick green vines attached.

"Whoa!" I whispered in fear of the giant plant. But I dismissed as I saw a human figure just behind it. A young woman to be accurate. I suddenly realized that it was…

"Garnet!" I said. "She's in there, but…."

"WHAT!!?" Steiner cut in, shouting. "Princess, I'm coming!!"

He tried to rush in there, but was yanked back by me.

"What are you doing!? I must rescue the princess!!!" He shouted trying to run back in there.

"HOLD IT, RUSTY!!!" I yanked him back again and placed him in a headlock, which he tried to struggle free, but with my strength he couldn't.

"What's the meaning of this, wretched child!!?" Steiner muffled out.

"Yeah, man let him go!" Zidane tells me.

"Please, Ron, he was going to get the princess." Vivi pleaded.

"And then he was going get ripped apart by a freakishly huge plant guard her." I told them.

"Oh, come on we faced plants just as big!" Zidane countered.

"What would you say if it was three times the size of that Prison Cage we fought a long while back?" I asked him.

"….." Zidane was speechless.

"Exactly, if Rusty here went in there, head first, charging, that plant would've seriously finished him before he could call us in to help!" I ended taking Steiner out of the submission hold. He glared back at me, exhaled and just bowed. "Huh?" I asked Steiner, never seeing him act like that towards me. He may have been a little bit calm as we left the Prima Vista, but never this humble!

"I am truly sorry, Ron, forgive my insubordination towards your judgment." He said rising up.

"Hey, I accept your apology but you didn't have to bow." I said still confused by his action.

"Still, I could've listened to what you were saying." He said.

"And you really need to stop rushing in every time you hear about the princess, otherwise you'll endanger her safety and your own." I countered.

"I will take heed of your consul." Steiner says.

"Good, now Zidane remember when you said about there being a master?" I asked Zidane.

"Yeah." He answered.

"That plant in there must be it." I said.

"So if we bust him up, we don't have to worry about the forest anymore!" He said.

"I think so, now with all that out of the way, let's go rescue the princess while we know what to expect!" I said to everyone.

"Right!" Everyone shouted and ran into the cave.

**************************************************************************************************************************

(Evil Forest-The Plant Brain's Cave)

As we all came out of the cave, we see the giant plant. All of us got out our weapons (in my case, their already out) ready to take on the plant boss.

Vivi spots Garnet behind the boss. "There she is!"

"So this is the master." Zidane wonders with a smirk on his face.

"It must be if that first Prison Cage left Garnet here with this thing." I say.

"Princess!!!" Steiner shouted, then directed his attention towards Zidane. "You stay out of this! Alexandria would be disgraced if a mere bandit should rescue the princess."

"You think you can handle him on your own?" Zidane countered.

"......" Steiner shuts up and gets ready for the fight.

"That's a negative." I added in. Then all see the giant plant raise its vines up as it hisses menacingly at us.

"Let's get him, boys!" Zidane shouts, more to Vivi and me.

(Play Battle with Specter from Ape Escape 2)

The Plant Brain (as the large plant was actually called) started to strike us down with its massive limbs, but we were all able to dodge it by somersaulting, flipping, or diving to side.

"Fire!" Vivi shouted as he blasted the plant in the middle with a small blast of fire magic, but to our horror, the plant wasn't even phased by it.

"No way!" Zidane shouted as he went to strike the right-side tentacle that was about to sweep him in the mid-section. I was able to stop the tentacle on the left side by standing my ground and taking the hit, but was able to grab it and immobilize it like the fight with the Prison Cage. Of course, it was harder to do since the Plant Brain's tree-like tentacles were much thicker than the Prison Cage's but I was able to manage due to endurance.

"Steiner, strike now!" I shouted out trying to maintain my grip on the tentacle. Steiner nodded then charged in and slashed it in the stalk. I turned to Vivi next. "Vivi, focus up your magic before firing again!" Vivi then followed suit and charged his power, until I felt the Plant Brain started to charge magic as well and fired out thunder magic which struck us all.

"AHHHHHH!!!!" We shouted before slumping to the ground, causing us to stop out defense against the tentacles.

"That…smarts." Zidane groaned before taking a potion and drinking it.

"This beast must have keen defense ensuring its protection." Steiner replied before drinking his own potion.

I drank a potion of my own noticed that it had a sweet taste but a bitter aftertaste after gulping it down. "Man that was a strange taste!" I said, ignoring the closing of my wounds.

Vivi drank one to before saying, "What can we do?" Then, he remembered the combination he and Steiner used earlier, and as if reading Vivi's mind, Steiner was thinking the same thing.

"Master Vivi, now!" Steiner said pointing his blade at the Plant Brain.

"Here goes!" Vivi shouted as he directed the fire magic at Steiner's sword, making it shine again, and then Steiner charged in and sliced the giant plant once more with a burning blade. The Plant Brain hissed out in pain, and we all took the chance to strike. Zidane sliced twice with his daggers in the same spot Steiner struck, adding to the plant's pain.

'_Let's see if I can do this again.' _I thought as I tried to focus my power towards my right foot, so fire could cover it like at the play. I was able to get it to work as the fire ignited my leg without pain like before. _'Yes!' _My mind yelled as I ran toward the plant and yelled: "Dragon Kick!" I gave that plant a round house kick to the same spot the others struck and once again it hissed louder.

"Alright let's keep it up!" Zidane shouted. But our praise was short lived as the Plant Brain opened its 'mouth' and spew pollen in our eyes, blinding us effectively.

"Oh no, I can't see!" I yelled out as I tried to wipe the pollen out of my eyes. As everyone tried to do the same, the Plant Brain took advantage of our blunder. I heard screams of pain as I heard the gang being struck down. "Guys!" I yelled but was silenced by the tentacle striking me in the stomach, slamming me into wall. I fell to the ground and groaned as I tried to pick myself up, but I was picked up and slammed into another part of the wall. We thought we might not make it out okay until I heard a familiar voice…..

"Get down!" I didn't what would happen next, so I just covered my head since I was already face first to the ground. Then, I heard a flash and the sound of the Plant Brain being hurt again.

"Whew, you guys are lucky I came here when I did!" Then I noticed who helped us….

"Blank, is that you?" Zidane asked.

"Yeah, here." Blank responded. It was just a few seconds before hearing…

"Hey, I can see!" I heard Zidane shout, I guess Blank was able to clear his eyes from the pollen.

"Yeah, the boss figured you would need these eye drops so he sent me to deliver them to ya, so here take this to the black mage while I treat the knight and the fighter. Blank informed him.

"Right." Zidane responded. A few more seconds later, I heard…..

"I can see!" I heard Vivi say.

"Finally!" Steiner shouted.

"Hey, where's the other guy?" Blank asked. That's when I noticed I must've been on the other side when I felt Garnet's hand under mine.

"I'm on the other side with Garnet!" I shouted in the direction I thought I could reach them.

"Zidane, give him the drops!" Blank said.

"I'll be back!" Zidane said. Unfortunately, the Plant recovered I bit and I was struck again and yelled out in pain.

"Ron!" Zidane shouted as he tried to get to me, but he and the others must've been blocked off as I heard the sounds of thunder around me.

"We can't get to him!" Vivi shouted as I heard him dodge the Plant Brain's attacks, and I was left blind and to defend myself and Garnet. I went to cover Garnet as the Plant Brain's rear tentacles kept striking my back. I gritted my teeth in pain as my back was getting more and more scarred.

"I…can't…keep…this….up…!" I grunted out with every strike.

Then, suddenly I felt power build up, within me and the pain stopped as the Plant Brain stopped hitting me.

(Zidane's POV)

"Hey, guys I think Ron's about to Trance!" I shouted to the others.

And sure enough, Ron had a bright light surrounding him like it did me, after it was gone, I saw Ron with his eyes still close from the pollen but he was cover in a white combat suit consisting of a guard vest and pants, and his hair was white as well he was surrounded by a blue aura.

"Looks things are looking for our friend!" I said smirking.

(Ron's POV)

'_Did I just trance?' _I thought as I had Garnet carried over my shoulder. _'Maybe I have enhanced strength….'_ My thoughts were cut short by a feeling I had, like something was coming, something bad and with green aura. _'Wait, I can see?'_ I sidestepped to the right before that green aura made contact. That's when I figured it out.

"I can see aura!" I whispered to myself, noticing my eyes were still closed. I then looked to everyone noticing they had a wavy aura surrounding them. Steiner and Blank had white aura, Vivi had black aura, I turned to see Garnet had white as well but a bit brighter, but Zidane had dark blue aura. "Huh?" I said but was cut short by the green aura trying to hit me again. I jumped over as it tried to sweep me from my feet, as I landed, I know who's aura was that; the Plant Brain's. It swung its tentacles again, but I backhanded it without ease then, in one quick motion, I raised my hand which was charging up with light blue aura. I pointed my hand at the Plant Brain and shouted: "AURA WAVE!!!!"

"Guys, move it!" Zidane shouted. Everyone dived to the side as I let loose a blast a light-blue energy at the Plant Brain, frying it on contact.

(End music)

As the fight ended, my Trance state left my body. Afterwards, I kneeled on the ground and gently put Garnet down on the ground. Either Trance or the adrenaline of the fight was keeping me from feeling pain because it came back to me, hard. And to top it all off, I was blind again. I then heard, footsteps stop in front of me.

"Ron, are you okay?" I heard Vivi asked with a worried tone.

"Yeah, just banged up a bit." I answered with fatigue in my voice.

"Here hold still." I heard Blank say as he forced my eyelids open and sprayed something cold in my eyes, I flinched in response. Then, my eyesight returned as I was greeted with the sight of Blank's face.

"Thanks, Blank." I thanked him.

"Here's a hi-potion, too. You definitely need it." He chuckled handing me a vial with green liquid.

"Cheers!" I raised the vial to him then downed the drink as I felt some of my health returning.

"Can you stand?" He offered me a hand up which I took and got up, I winced as my back was still hurting.

"My back's still hurting but I can manage until we get out of here." I told him as he nodded, then I looked to Steiner holding Garnet, with Zidane and Vivi next to them. Garnet start to squirm a bit in Steiner's arms.

"Princess!!! Please get a hold of yourself!" He tells her.

Blank walks up to Zidane and says. "Zidane, give her the stuff." Zidane pulls out the purple vial and pours it down Garnet's open mouth. She's tries to cough it out before she takes it all.

"Princess, please try to drink all of it." Steiner reassures her.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Vivi asks.

"She should with that medicine doing its job." I tell him. Then suddenly ground starts to rumble as we try to keep steady on our feet.

"Oh, man! What now!?" Blank shouts.

"Look!" I point to the place where the Plant Brain sat and it starts collapsing, and from it and the cave we all came in from, some freaky looking spiders appear. Except it's about two feet taller than Steiner seeing he's tallest one among us. There were about five of them coming, but it seemed more might appear as they start to advance towards us.

"Sheez! We're gonna be surrounded!" Blank shouted as we all back away from them. Zidane looked behind him and saw a way out.

"Let's get out of here!" he yelled to us and one-by-one we left the area with Steiner carrying Garnet until we started running down the path. As soon as we reach a cliff, we all jump down, but when I did, my back was hurting again.

"Are you okay?" Zidane stops to ask.

"I'll be even better once we get away from…" I was cut from response when two of those plant spiders surrounded us.

"Vivi, torch 'em!" Zidane yells as he strikes the one behind us killing it swiftly with two swipes of the daggers.

"Fire!" Vivi blasts the one in front of us turning it to ash.

"Let's move!" I said trying to run as quickly as I can. Zidane turns around for a moment and start noticing a change in the trees surrounding them.

"What are you doin'!?" Blank yells at him. "We gotta keep movin'!"

"Something's wrong..." Zidane mutters.

"What?" Blank wonders as Zidane walks a bit forward.

"The entire forest is coming after us." He says then turns to Blank. "Blank... Take care of everyone." He says again before running towards the exit with the rest of us following. I suddenly got a bad before noticing something, as the forest rumbles.

"Oh no, the forest is dying out!" I yell noticing a far away tree turning to stone. I then notice legions of spiders chasing us down as the forest starts to petrify itself more in an effort to stop us. Steiner and Vivi were able to get Garnet out of the forest safely with me close behind, making it out as well. I turn around to see a spider attempting to attack Zidane, but he moves out of the way and it catches Blank.

"Blank!" I hear Zidane shout.

"Here take it!" Blank shouts and then throws a rolled up map to Zidane and he is able to catch it on the run and continues toward the exit, dodging spiny plant tentacles, and makes it out. The forest exit closes up with the tentacles wrapping around the trees and petrifies. Afterwards, Zidane rushes to the stone and tries to destroy it with his daggers, but it didn't help!

"Dammit!!! That idiot!" He shouts to air then slumps down to his knees. "Blank..." He mutters sadly, trying to fight the tears coming out of his eyes.

I walk up to him and place a hand on his shoulder trying to cheer him up. "You know he's not dead right?" I ask him, smiling.

"What?" He looks to me with an eyebrow rising.

"He's just trapped, like what petrification does." I assure him. "And don't they have something to cure that?"

Zidane lights up as he rises from the ground. "Your right! We can come back later and save him!"

"Right, so let's not honor his memory yet, it's getting late so let's make camp!" I tell him, which he nods.

The party makes camp as dusk hits, and they gather around a campfire on the outskirts of the forest. Zidane finishes up setting camp and I lie down on the ground with my back up, seeing that my back's still in pain.

"Man, that hi-potion didn't help out back." I groaned turning my head to the group. Everyone just ignored me as they were worrying for Garnet's health, not that I don't blame them.

"I hope she gets well soon..." Vivi says looking at Garnet's sleeping form.

Steiner shoots an angry glare at Zidane. "This is all his fault! Have you nothing to say, you filth!?"

"...Oh..." We hear Garnet stirring in her sleep then sits up.

"P-Princess!!!" Steiner manages to say as he kneels down before her.

Garnet rubs her eyes and directs her attention towards the Pluto Knight. "...Steiner? ...How did I survive...? You brought me here?"

"It is my sworn duty to protect you at any cost." Steiner tells her.

Zidane scoffs. "What are you talking about? It was Vivi's magic, Ron's fists and my dagger that got you out of there, Princess." He says then points at me still lying down. "And if it wasn't for Ron, you probably would've been beaten to a pulp."

"I thank you all." Garnet says gratefully.

"That monkey deserves no praise!" Steiner growls at Zidane. "None of this would've happened if you and your band hadn't abducted the princess!

And how dare you claim to have rescued her!? When we get back to Alexandria, I will--"

"Steiner... I left the castle of my own will." Garnet interrupts.

Zidane chuckles at her response. "What a coincidence, eh? We went to snatch her, and she wanted to be snatched."

"Impossible!" Steiner shouts.

Garnet just closes her eyes responding, "It's true."

Zidane gets up and looks over us all "So what do you say, Rusty? Friends? Come on, let's enjoy this camping trip while it lasts."

"Camping--you imbecile!" Steiner becomes furious. "Surely even you must know something about the Mist! The vicious monsters it spawns! The abnormalities it stirs in the mind and body! Princess, we must leave this dangerous place at once."

I step into conversation, "Steiner, the princess hasn't even fully recovered yet. If we leave now, we all will be killed easily!" I tell him. "Remember, what I said before facing that plant monster?"

"Yes, but still….." He tried to plead again before Zidane gets back in.

"Alright, tell me... How do you plan to get out of here?" He questions him. "We're standing in a valley surrounded by tall cliffs. And last I heard, North Gate and South Gate were sealed off."

"........." Steiner gives no response.

"Yeah. That's what I thought." Zidane says.

Steiner growls lowly at him.

Zidane then adds more insight, "The princess can barely walk right now. You went through this. You should know. I think we should rest here for now."

Steiner then tries to yell again, "I will never follow your--"

I get up and yell at Steiner in a commanding tone. "Steiner!!! State your sworn duty!"

Steiner then salutes stating. "To protect Princess Garnet Til Alexandros, sir!"

He then notices, I just got him under control, by acting as a commanding officer while everyone starts laughing even Garnet. Steiner then sighs with ablush present on his face "...Very well. Until the princess recovers, I will guard this place with my life."

Zidane sounds pleased with the decision. "Sounds good to me. Vivi, let's get some rest."

We let Garnet take the tent while me, Vivi and Zidane starts to sleep, getting ready to leave the next day.

Little did I know, I would be in for a rude awakening……

**********************************************************************************************************************

Ah, a spooky cliffhanger, maybe.

Okay, the fourth chapter is over and I'm tired!

Next chapter: The Cold Battle at the Ice Cavern

Please Rate & Review, until next time!

Now we turn to the new move list!

******************************************************************************************************************

**Air Stomp Drilll: ** Ron jumps high into the air and after he's just over the opponent, he spind drives a foot to the enemy whlie the air around them slices the enemy.

**_Trance Skill: (Aura)- _**Instead of physical contact, Ron focuses his inner power to form aura techniques.

**Aura Wave-** Ron channels the aura around him and focuses it in to a wave that blast multiple opponents.


	5. CH5: The Ice Cavern

**Duelist of Dawn: **Here comes another chapter, I'm really feeling good after the last one.

**Ronald: **That's because we're finally out of that damn forest! Praise the lord!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Okay, is anybody but me seeing double around here?

**Ronald: **Well you're certainly not looking into a mirror are you? (Chuckles)

**Duelist of Dawn: **Hey, I didn't expect the story version of me showing up!

**Ronald: **All characters of the story are trying to get into the mix of introducing the reviewers and chapters.

**Duelist of Dawn: **True, and speaking of reviewers, I like to thank lilypop8 and FF & STH for reviewing as well as Aerith the Evenstar for reading and reviewing my story so far! I glad you like it and yet you've never played the game before!

**Ronald: **He'll be sure to remember that when your 3rd installment of your Xenosaga stories comes out, he never played that himself.

**Duelist of Dawn: **My other self is right, I'll check out the game itself when I get the chance! Also, to anyone who loves the Xenosaga series you should check it out on Aerith the Evenstar's page a check it out!

**Ronald: (**looks irritated)I have a name dude!

**Duelist of Dawn:** Sorry, why don't you give out the disclaimer so I won't get sued.

**Ronald: **Sure, Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy or any music he uses for the scenes and battles, matter of fact I need a theme song, I heard other OC characters have one.

**Duelist of Dawn: **You got it, pal I got one in waiting for ya and debuts this chapter during the boss fight.

**Ronald: **Well stop talking to me and start typing the story!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Alright, let's start this chapter!

**************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 5**

**Ron's Mission and the Cold Battle at the Ice Cavern!**

"Well that was a good rest!" I yawned out and stretched as I woke up from my rest. I felt 100% again, and even as my back was feeling better! But as soon as my eyelids opened up, I was seeing nothing but darkness. I found it weird because not even the mist could do this and I was cured of being blind. "Hey, is anybody here with me!?" I asked out in the darkness, but I only got the echoes of my question. "Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, Garnet, answer me!"

"They're not here." A dark and monotone voice answers, sounding like it was coming from everywhere. "They cannot answer you from inside your dreams."

"I'm dreaming?" I asked the voice, while still scanning the area for some kind of life-form, seeing if it had the same voice as my 'visitor.'

"Yes, I've prolonged your hibernation state so I may contact you from my domain." It answered.

"Okay, but don't you think if you'd show yourself, I'll be able to give you a proper conversation? 'Cause no offense, but I really don't want to just talk out in space." I called out.

It was silent for a couple of minutes before responding……

"Very well, but I think you know who you are talking to." The voice said, confusing me as I heard footsteps approaching my direction. "Despite, never hearing my voice from inside this domain, playing your games, you know my voice from another."

I tried to rack my brain for answers, _'He's from the game?' _I thought. _'And I think I do know that voice…..'_ I was still thinking who it could be as the footsteps got louder, as soon as they stopped the answer came to me……

"You're…." I began and turned around………

(Play Master of Time from Final Fantasy 9)

…..And saw a bald, old man with a white beard. He wore an all black suit with a cape and the thing that stood out about him, was a red jewel in the center of his stomach. This was a powerful man, who goes by the name….

"…..Garland!!" I shouted as I pointed to him, in shock that someone that showed up in a later part of the game, was here now.

"Correct, we meet again Ronald Harris." He said not reacting at all to my shock. But I came out of my shock and went into confusion again.

"Again? You mean when I played the game to fight you at your base?" I asked, seeing if that's what he meant.

"Wrong." He said still in that monotone voice. Suddenly, he raises his hand and blasts a small, white energy ball at me which forces me down on my back.

"ERGH!!!!" I shouted as I landed on the ground, for such a small power shot, it hurt like Hell! I rose up pretty quickly despite my pain as Garland looked at me with acknowledgement in his black eyes.

"Impressive, the plasma extract I've injected into your body as served you well." He said crossing his arms. "Even with a small portion of my power, I was unable to keep you down. Your recovery time is astounding as well."

"Plasma extract?" I asked, mostly to me. "You mean that syringe filled with red liquid!?" I asked out surprise.

"Yes." He said, and then snapped his fingers in my direction. I suddenly felt a sparkle of magic around me, and it was healing me? Just what was Garland's deal here? First, he basically pummels me with shot to the gut, then he starts being nice and cures my pain?

"What are you playing at!?" I snapped at him.

He waves another white energy ball above head, bigger than the last and slams it down on me, knocking me down.

"AHHHHH!!!" I shouted again as I laid on my stomach.

"Watch your tongue, boy." He said, obviously miffed at me, but that's putting it lightly given his actions. "I currently hold all the cards here, a false remark and your soul will be ripped from your body before your proper time of death."

I gasped for air as I forced myself to stand, and I know this guy could end me due to being so far away from the actual time I fight him.

"Care to answer now how you've met me, now?" He asked as he charged up another, larger energy ball; one that could kill me on contact. He then narrowed his eyes and said, "Beware, your next wrong answer."

'_Wait! He knew about that syringe that gave me more power!' _I thought. _'That's means…..'_

"You're…… the voice…. T-that…. brought me into….. the game!" I managed to say.

"Finally, you understand." He says, snapping his fingers to heal me again. I felt absolute relief as the healing magic surrounded me and I was able to stand without fighting the pain. "Yes, I've brought into the world of Gaia to fulfill a purpose."

"A purpose?" I asked, not knowing is it a game complex or something entirely new.

"A chance to help this world and my own from the destruction." He tells me.

"You mean Terra?" I ask him again.

"Correct, you must be the one to preserve as much life as you can during your time here." He says walking away a bit, and his back turned against me.

"So, you want to save a lot of lives from wars and battles?" I inquire.

"Exactly, and do you know why I have you, of all people, do this?" He asks.

"Because, I know the game." I tell him.

"Very good, here you reward." He responds. He waves his left hand and from it, strands of light and dark enter my head and disappear in a shine. I had my eyes closed during that time, and after the strands entered my head, I saw that aura again but this time Garland's aura. It was a dark blue aura, like Zidane's.

"You know have the power to see aura outside of your Trance state, use it well." He informs me.

"Thanks." I said after opening my eyes. Suddenly, he appears right in front of me. "Whoa!" He picks me up by my shirt and says.

"But be forewarned, I will still play my original part in this game, be ready." He says.

"Got it." I say. Then a white light appears behind him and then he drops more major news to me….

"Also, if you are killed in this world, you cannot be revived." He says. "To put in game terms, it will be game over…. Permanently!" Then he throws into the light, blinding me.

(End music)

***********************************************************************************************************************

(Mist Continent-Campsite outside Evil Forest)

"Ahh!" I shot up with a start, breathing heavily. I then check my surroundings seeing the familiar sight of mist and the petrified remains of the Evil Forest Entrance. "I'm finally awake." I whisper, making sure I don't wake up anybody. I check to see Vivi sleeping peacefully, the tent's still closed meaning Garnet hasn't woken up yet, and Steiner standing up looking over the clearing opposite Evil Forest. I decided to walk over and relieve from watching out for danger.

"Steiner, you can….huh?" I called to Steiner, only to find him sleeping standing up, drooling as well. I chuckled a bit at the sight of it and decided against waking him up. Instead, I hauled him over my back like when he was sick with those seeds and laid him down in spot I was sleeping. "Rest easy, solider."

I then walk over to where he was standing guard and stretched out my body. Then I started to exercise, I started with 20 jumping jacks, then went to 15 push-ups. I would do more, but everyone would be waking up soon so I had to cut some of them short. Finally, I do my favorite exercise: squats. It's my favorite ever since the Final Fantasy 7 series where one side-quest was to do more squats than the other guy, it made it look fun despite the work. I did them until I heard a rustling sound from the tent, signaling that Garnet was up. She zipped down the tent and crawled out, yawning and stretching as he stood up.

'_She's really pretty, no wonder Zidane's after her.' _I thought. _'And it's kind of cute between those two, like Aladdin and Jasmine.'_ Yes, despite being a guy I am big softie when it comes to a good romance story. Garnet then notices me and starts walking over, smiling.

"Good morning." She says.

"Good morning, sleep well?" I ask.

"Quite well, thank you." She responds politely, I think it's the fact that I am older than her by five years, plus she is a princess. "How did you sleep?"

"It was alright, never slept on the outside ground, plus my back feels fine after a good nap." I say, earning a giggle from her.

"Well, I'm glad mister…" She trails off trying to remembering my name.

"Oh, sorry! I never did tell you my name! It's Ronald Harris, but call me Ron and no 'mister' please, I'm not that old." I introduce myself, chuckling a bit.

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you, Ron." She responds while bowing. "I am Princess Garnet Til Alexandros XVII."

"Pleasure." I say giving a slight bow, respecting her high authority. She then takes hold of my right hand with both of hers.

"I wish to thank you for protecting from that plant." She says sincerely.

"Hey, I would have done that for anyone, who's unconscious." I smile at her, not feeling the least embarassed.

"Well, let me thank you properly." She says then starts to rub the knuckles on the hand she's holding. Then she pulls out a pair of black gloves and places them in my hand and closes it. "You really need to learn to take better care of you hands while fighting."

"I will, thank you very much." I thank her while putting on the gloves. I form fists to see how they feel and shadowbox a bit to get the edge with them on.

"Um, what were you doing, if you do not mind me asking?" She asks politely. "I heard some noises before I left the tent, wondered if you knew?"

"Exercising. I have to keep it up to stay my best!" I responded cheerfully as she giggles again.

"I see." She says, and then looks around. "Where is Zidane?" I look around as well, until I see him over at the Evil Forest Entrance and point in that direction.

"Thank you." She says before walking towards Zidane. As she talks to Zidane, Vivi starts to wake up and I walk over to greet him. He sits and yawns before looking my way. I give him a short 'hi!' before he ends up screaming a bit, not enough to wake Steiner though, heavy sleeper ain't he?

"R-Ron! Don't do that!" He tells me. I smile softly at him, the little guy has amazing power but still a little kid learning about his world.

"Sorry, I didn't think I'd spook ya." I told him, trying to console him. "Just came to say good morning."

"Oh, good morning." Vivi says and stands readjusting his outfit. "Is your back still hurting?"

"No, I feel like a million b….gil!" I say, trying not to say 'bucks.' _'Although, Garland showing up and giving me a beating, wasn't on my vacation brochure.' _I thought to myself.

"Great, I'm glad you're okay!" Vivi says with happiness in his voice.

"You and Garnet, both. After all, I put my life on the line to protect her and I was blind doing it." I added with a slight chuckle.

"By the way, where is she?" He asks, looking around for the princess.

"Over there, talking with Zidane." I point in the direction where Garnet left. And sure enough, Zidane and Garnet walk back to the campsite.

"Morning guys!" Zidane says.

"Morning!" Vivi says.

"Hey there!" I add in.

"Well, we should pack up the camp and head to higher ground above the mist." Zidane says walking over to the tent. Steiner must've put out the fire while we slept. And Garnet proceeds to wake up the knight.

"Steiner, wake up please, we are about to leave." Garnet says shaking him a bit, before Steiner shoots up in his sleep, startling her. "Oh!" She says covering her mouth.

"Wha? Huh?" Steiner says, still drowsy. He then looks to Garnet and suddenly he was wide awake. "Princess! I am happy to see that you are well!" He says bowing down on both knees. All of us, except Garnet laugh at the sudden wake-up call Steiner just gave himself.

"Steiner, please get up, we are leaving." Garnet sighed, embarrassed seeing one of her knights behaving this way. Steiner just got on his feet and proceeded to leave.

Vivi spotted something coming from the left. "Look! There's something coming!"

We all got ready to fight whatever was coming, but instead it was just another moogle.

"Wait! Wait! Kupo! Don't attack!" The moogle said in frenzy. We all relaxed from the surprised as the moogle continued to talk. "Phew! I'm impressed, kupo! First time I've seen anyone escape from Evil Forest. You all must be strong, kupo! But don't get cocky, kupo. Lots of stronger monsters ahead."

"Well we'll get more experience so that we can take on the stronger monsters." Zidane said, pounding his chest. "By the way, who the heck are you?"

"Zidane, how rude!" Garnet scolded him.

"Oh, it's okay, kupo!" The moogle said. "I should've introduced myself, kupo! My name is Monty!"

"Hello." Garnet greeted.

Monty then pulled out eight vials of elixir. "I have a gift for you, kupo." He handed to Zidane and he put them inside a bag I never noticed he had. "Happy trails! Kupo!"

"Thank you." Garnet and I said. And we were on our way.

Monty jumped up said. "Kupopo!" I think he meant to say 'you're welcome.'

"Bye." Vivi waved to Monty before following us.

"Kupoo!" Monty saying 'Bye.' Then I saw something funny, Zidane slaps Steiner on the back and walks off with the rest of the us. Steiner then looks around the area unwittingly, seemingly like he was think before being brought back.

"!!! What the... Who goes there!?" Steiner says unintelligently.

Monty walks up to him. "Your friends already left, kupo." He tells Steiner.

Steiner runs up to us yelling, "Princess, wait!" His armor clacks all the way as he reaches up. Zidane takes the chance to make a smart remark…

"Man, Rusty you're slow!" He says while smirking. Steiner turns red from anger.

"It's because you refused to wait for me, you dolt!" He jumps up and down as he yells at Zidane.

"Steiner, calm down! He's just joking around!" I told Steiner trying to stop him from jumping.

"Ron is right; you really need to control your anger!" Garnet scolded him, putting her hands on her hips. Steiner then calms down and turns to me and Garnet.

"My apologies." He says without anger.

"Good now, let's keep going." Zidane says looking at the map. "There's a cavern that's supposed to get us to higher ground."

I also look to the map then point in the direction we should go. "We go north then." I say walking towards our destination, with everyone else following behind me. It took us about twenty minutes before reaching the cavern in question. We see light-blue ice from the insides of the entrance. Also, a cold breeze blows through us, slightly giving us the chills. Zidane and I look at the map and he puts it away.

"This must be the cavern..." Zidane ponders out loud.

"Yup, I think so." I answer as Garnet, Steiner and Vivi move up behind us.

"U-Um..." Vivi stammers a bit. Zidane and I turn to face him.

"What's up, Vivi?" I ask.

"Have you ever heard of the Ice Cavern?" He asks us.

"Sure..." Zidane answers and then asks. "Is this the place?"

"I think so." Vivi says giving the cave a once over. "It's supposed to be near Evil Forest."

"...I've heard of it." Garnet says, gazing inside the cavern. "It's supposed to be a beautiful place, covered in ice."

"My grandpa told me about this place." Vivi informs us. "He said the cavern takes travelers to the top of the Mist."

"Bravo!" Steiner applauds. "Master Vivi's grandfather must be quite a scholar! We must thank him upon escaping the Mist!"

Vivi looks down a bit. "My grandpa used to teach me lots of things, but he passed away..." I could relate to his brief sorrow, I lost both of mine; my father's side for reason unknown. All I remember was his face. I took the one on my mother's side better when he passed; I was able to remember a lot of the things we had done together.

"Oh... Forgive my indiscretion." Steiner says.

Vivi perks up a bit and tells him, "Don't worry about it."

Zidane walks up to the cave before saying, "Well...why don't we go inside?"

We all nod, and then walk in. If you thought feeling the chill from outside was cold, the inside was like being stuck in a giant freezer. And considering my current clothing, you can guess how I felt. There were a lot of plants frozen in bloom near the ledges inside. It was like stepping inside a picture book to me. For Garnet, it was like a dream come true.

"Oh...! What a beautiful place!" She gushes. "Seeing the actual cavern is so much better than reading about it!" She then kneels down and checks out a frozen flower at a ledge. "Oh, how pretty... I wonder, what kind of flower this is?" She reaches out to touch it when……

"Princess! Please, don't touch anything!" Steiner tells her.

I walk over to Steiner and say, "Lighten up, man! She finally gets to see the world outside her castle and you go bummin' her joy!"

"Have you forgotten we are all in grave danger still?" He questions me. "There could be more vile monsters afoot!"

Zidane jumps in as I was forming a rebuttal. "Can we get moving? I'm freezin' here."

"Uh, sure." I say as the gang and I follow Zidane deeper into the icy cave. We reach a curve around the corner and see five yellow and jell-owly creatures flexing around and blocking our intended path.

"What are those things?" Vivi asks everybody.

I have a looking of disgust on my face as I answer Vivi's question, "Flan, yuck!" I respond in a distasteful tone.

"I take you're not fond of the guys." Zidane looks to me. I shake my head in response.

"Plus, I never like the taste of one." I narrowed my eyes, still directing my attention at the living custard monsters. "Delicious, my ass!"

Everybody starts to sweat-drop at my reaction. "Okay, okay they're nasty, let's just whack before they notice us." Zidane says shaking me from my bad experience.

"Right!" Everyone charges in and attack the flans in our first pre-emptive strike. Zidane attacks one with his daggers, slicing it down into pieces and off the path. Vivi casts his fire magic at two of them melting into yellow puddles. Steiner power slashes another one down the middle.

And finally, I kick one into the sky and then, while it's in mid-air, I say, "Sorry, nasty……" Then I back hand it into a wall. It makes a squish noise before sliding down off the path. "….I'm an ice cream man myself!" I chuckle with a hint of evil.

"Are you done ending your war with frozen foods?" Zidane says in a bored tone. I turn to see him and Steiner with a bored tone, Vivi eyes widen a bit, and Garnet staring at me strangely.

"What, I said I didn't like that stuff!" I raised my hand in defense.

"And I need to change MY habits?" Steiner asks me, raising an eyebrow. I chuckle a bit nervously at that statement. After that awkward moment, we continue down the road. On the side of the path ahead, there was a weird-looking wall. Zidane was the first to react…..

"Huh? What's this...?" He ponders while looking it over. He then pounds the wall and says, "What a strange wall... There's gotta be something behind it." He then turns around and says, "Hey, Vivi!"

"Y-Yes?" Vivi asks, while shivering.

"Can you break this wall down with your magic?" Zidane asks him pointing to the wall.

"I...I'm coming." He says, and walks over to the wall. Vivi then melts the wall with fire magic, revealing a treasure chest.

"Hey, would you look at that!" I say, surprised by the present the cave left us.

Zidane was more surprised seeing his suspicions confirmed, "I knew it!" He says excitedly then opens the chest, revealing a couple of iron knuckles. "There might be other walls like this...I'm counting on you, Vivi!"

"S-Sure!" Vivi says, shivering still. I notice that air was beginning to get a lot more colder than normal, but I dismissed the cause as staying still during the last few seconds. Pretty soon, we came across another wall soon enough. Vivi destroys it and we get a leather bracelet. Later on, we see a stump covered in ice making a bridge to another chest. Zidane walks across and gets a leather vest. I notice another treasure chest below him but no way to get there. Garnet notices my expression as Zidane walks back over to us.

"Ron, is there something wrong?" She asks me. I point to the treasure chest on the ledge below the other.

"There's another chest over there." I tell her, grabbing Zidane's, Steiner's and Vivi's attention.

"How do we proceed, there's no path down there?" Steiner inquires. Suddenly, an idea pops into my brain.

"We make one using the same stump." I say pointing to the stump this time. Then I turn to Vivi, "Vivi, could you aim your magic at the stump against the farther ledge?"

"Y-Yes!" Vivi says and focuses on the portion in question and then let loose the fire. "Fire!" A piece of the ledge melts a bit, allowing the stump to slide down and land on the ground nearest the chest.

"Good job, Vivi!" I say patting him on the back.

"T-Thanks!" He says. There were a few moments of silence before I notice everyone's eyes are on me.

"What's up?" I said, looking uneasy at the stares. Then they all had smiles on.

"We're waiting for you to go get the treasure?" Zidane says.

"It was your brilliant planning, Mr. Harris." Steiner adds.

"So you should have the honor of retrieving the item for us all!" Garnet encourages me.

"She's right!" Vivi says. I smile back at them and nod.

"Be right back!" I say sliding down the stump and grabbing the weapon inside the chest. I walk back up carefully and reveal to them a Mage Masher dagger. "I believe you should use this, Zidane." I say, handing him the blade.

"Thanks, oh and here are these knuckle guards I found earlier!" He says giving me the iron knuckles and I put them on over the gloves Garnet gave me.

"Thank you!" I say back then we all start to walk towards another cavern and it leads to a forked path. The left side lead to a dead end, but we freed a moogle from a frozen block. Then we took the right way, having some weird, cold mist. We all try to keep warm, but Vivi straggles more against the blowing mist.

"Vivi, hurry up, or you'll be left behind!" Zidane says.

"I...I'm coming." Vivi struggles out to say. But as he walks he starts to stagger over a ledge….

"Oh no!" Garnet cries out. Vivi was about to fall over the ledge, but I run over and grab by the collar of his coat and pull him into my arms.

"Vivi, you alright kid?" I ask him, but I notice his eyes shut. "Hey, don't fall asleep you'll die in the cold!" I yell to wake him up, but to no avail. Luckily, he's still breathing. Then Steiner walks over...

"Master Vivi! Are you okay?" He asks but gets no response from the young black mage. But then, Steiner almost collapses over the ledge, but I grab in another quick reflex.

"Hey! Not you too!" I grab him as I pull him up. But I pull him a little too hard…..

*CLACK!!!*

I send him over Garnet's head and into the wall. "Eee! I got remember my strength!" I said looking over to see Steiner stuck head first into the wall.

"You think!? Zidane yells at me along with a stern look from Garnet which I turn my head to the side to avoid. Zidane walks over and pulls out Steiner and sidesteps before being caught under him. "Yo, Rusty! You're...not alright, are you?" Zidane asks the sleeping/frozen knight. He looks to Vivi still out of it then back at Steiner again. "What happened to you guys? Hey, Rusty! Move it or lose it!" He kicks Steiner with nothing happening. "Get up!" He gives a harder kick, still nothing. "...It's no use." He says giving up. Then, Garnet collapses to the snowy ground when Zidane wasn't looking.

"Garnet!" I yell grabbing Zidane's attention. He runs to her.

"Oh no! Garnet! Not you, too?" He exclaims, trying to shake her awake. "Garnet? She's out cold..." Then, he himself starts to sleep. "Shoot... I'm falling asleep..."

"Zidane! Get up!" I cry out. I almost do the same thing until I hear something…….

*Jingle!*

"Huh? A bell?" I ask.

"What's that sound...?" I hear Zidane suddenly start to wake up.

"You're awake!" I say glad he didn't stay down long.

"Yeah. Did you hear something?" He asks me.

"Yeah, sounded like it came from over there..." I answer pointing to wear the mist is blowing from.  
"Is somebody there...?" He asks out loud. I stand up, putting Vivi on the ground.

"Only one way to find out!" I say. "Let's go!"

Zidane and I walk over to the next cave and it leads to the bottom of a frozen waterfall. And then we hear a squeaky voice

"Why didn't you fall asleep?" It said, sounding shocked.

We look up to see another black mage, but this one had icy blue wings, pointy leather hat, holding a tiny bronze bell and was as short as Vivi.

"You two should be dead by now..." It says to us.

"Are you the one causing this blizzard?" Zidane asks in hostility, drawing his daggers. The black mage jumps off the ledge

"Hee-hee-hee... That's right!" He cackles swinging his bell around.

"Who the hell are you!?" I ask, assuming the boxer's stance.

"I am the almighty Black Waltz No. 1!" He says raising his hand to the sky. "The master of blizzard magic! Now behold!"

(Play Ronald battle music-Otherworld from Final Fantasy X)

The newly dubbed Black Waltz waves his left hand over his bell and ice magic and chants, "Ice Giant, Sealion…Come before me!!!!" And next to him, a wide and giant icy pillar shoots up from the ground and it seems to have something in it…

"What is that?" Zidane blurts out, seeing what appears to an icy blue sea lion that was ten times its normal size, also it has a blue circle center in the mid-section of the body.

*ROAR!!!!*

The ice pillar breaks freeing the giant and it moves near its master.

"Sealion! Kill the men!" Black Waltz commanded its frozen beast. With another roar, it slides towards trying to slap us with its giant flippers.

"Zidane, get away!" I yell and he flips over the flipper and strikes it with his new Mage Masher. I follow up with a fist to the Sealion's face. It crawled away from us looking like it was standing down.

"Ha, your pet's biting off more than it can chew!" Zidane yells getting cocky.

"Zidane, it's not over yet!" I tell him not taking my eyes off the giant monster.

"Your friend's right!" Black Waltz says then turns to its beast. "Sealion, now!" As soon as the command was given, the Sealion sparkled with magic then directed it toward us. Zidane and I felt a sudden chill from below us and then we were locked in place by chunks of ice on our feet.

"Aw man! I can't move!" Zidane yells trying to stab his daggers into the ice in an attempt to free himself.

"Me neither." I say sounding hopeless, and then I sport a grin on myself. "For now…."

"Huh?" Black Waltz looks at me and then finally sees what I'm about to do. I raise my hand in an attempt to karate chop the ice on my feet until… "Sealion, strike them down!" The Sealion then slides over and uses its massive flippers to smack us over in our sides to the opposite walls.

"AHH!!" Me and Zidane shouted in pain as soon as we made contact against the wall.

"Now smash them!" Black Waltz gives his final command as Sealion raises his flippers then smashes them down on our bodies. Black Waltz looked in awe of its beast's power. "Well done, my pet! Now collect the corpses for our masters!" He tells the giant monster.

Only to find out that the monster couldn't lift up its flippers….well one of them, actually. It raises its left flipper up but out of pain!

"Sealion, what's the matter!?" Black Waltz asks his monster, looking nervous now. He checks the left flipper and sees it cracked! "WHAT!? But how!?" He looks under the flipper and see Zidane holding on by the daggers that are stuck to the flipper!

"Hi there!" Zidane waves at the startled Black Waltz. It then points accusingly at Zidane.

"You should've been crushed like that other human!" It yells, shocked now at the still living bandit. Zidane then laughs out loud then speaks to the startled mage.

"Is he?" He asks, seeing the Black Waltz's eyes widen once again at the question, before Zidane turns to the other flipper. "Let me check…Hey Ron, you dead, man!?" He asks with a big grin. In response, the right flipper rises up a bit, revealing myself holding the flipper!

"Hell naw, crazy!" I yell at my friend. "I'm still alive!" Then I start asking him a question. "What hell are you doing up there man!?" I ask in mock anger.

"What's it look like, I'm hanging around!" He yells at me in the same mock anger voice. "What the hell are YOU doing down there!?"

"Chillin', working out with my new weights." I say sounding laid back.

Then we both share a big laugh before we're interrupted…..

"SHUT UP!!!" The Black Waltz yells. "Sealion, smash them and this time harder!!"

"Shouldn't have said that…" Zidane say in a sing-song voice. And on cue, my foot ignites and I do a back flip yelling: "Dragon Kick!" as I kick and burn of the flipper I was previously holding. Next, Zidane pulls one of his daggers then slams it back on the flipper, shattering it. Zidane lands gracefully on his feet and runs toward me giving me a high-five.

"That was good!" He said.

"Hey, I'm becoming a man with a plan!" I say to him.

"Heee…hee…heee…" We both turn around to see the Black Waltz moving towards its wounded beast.

"Why's he laughing?" Zidane says.

"Maybe he's having delusions of grandeur." I shrug.

"BLIZZARA!!" The Black Waltz casts a powerful ice magic over the Sealion which heals its broken flippers. The Sealion rises up and roars in praise of its rejuvenation. "You see, break my toy if you want, I'll just fix it!" It cackles. "As long as I'm alive, my beast is invulnerable!" It laughs again before noticing the killer looks Zidane and I are giving him.

"W-Why are you *Gulp!* looking at me like that?" It asks stepping back slightly.

"You just gave us the perfect game plan!" I say giving an evil smirk.

"W-What are you talking about!?" He demands.

"Sure your Sealion's guaranteed to last….."Zidane starts

"……but only if you're still standing!" I finish Zidane's sentence. It was then, the Black Waltz put two and two together….

"NO! STAY BACK!" It yells at the top his lungs, and then turns to Sealion. "KILL THEM QUICK, I WANT TO LIVE!!!"

The sealion charges at us, only to hit the wall as Zidane and I flip over it and advance quickly towards the scared mage.

"BLIZZARD!!!" It cried out casting magic, but the casting was so quick, it only shot a small ice block, which I knocked out of the way. Then I gave it an uppercut and jumped after yelling: "Aerial Drive!" and send an elbow to its gut ramming the body down to the ground…… except he didn't land on the ground.

*SLISH!*

It landed on Zidane's daggers that he held up.

"Urrrgh…." It gasped out, turning to Sealion. "Sealion…..kill them…for…me…." It then falls limp, lifeless.

Zidane throw the Black Waltz to the ground as it disintegrates into thin air.

"Now let's get that sealion!" Zidane yells out. The Sealion rises up again but the blue circle on its abdomen turn blood red. It gave a much louder roar as it summoned a giant tsunami towards us.

"Oh hell!!" Was our only words as the cold wave of water slammed us against the wall. By a miracle, we survived, barely.

"It's…freakin'….pissed!" I gasped out. "Any thoughts?" I turn to Zidane, only to see him glow as he reached the Trance state again.

"We take him down with my new power!" He says charging up power before seeing fire appear right in front of us, and it rises in a make-shift wall as the Sealion summons another tsunami at us.

Unlike that last one, the tsunami fizzled out as soon as it reached the fire wall, reduced to steam.

Zidane raised his hand and says: "TIDAL FLAME!" and the fire wall turns into a flaming tidal wave and melts the Sealion on impact.

(End music)

Zidane returns to normal and sinks to his knees, I do the same.

"Man that was tough!" I said catching my breath.

"Yeah, but we had some laughs!" He says passing me an elixir and opens his own. We drink them up and instantly spring up to our feet. We also notice that the air was warmer and the waterfall was unfrozen, flowing again.

"Hey, everyone should've woken up by now!" I realize.

"Yeah, let's get back!" He says as we start to walk back to our friends. Just then, a squeaky voice yells:

"You two defeated No. 1, but No. 2 and No. 3 will reclaim the princess!" It says. We both look around for the voice, but no one is there.

"Wh-Who's there?" Zidane was spooked a bit at the sudden voice. Oh, whatever... We've gotta go back and check on them!"

Back where the rest of the sleeping party was, Zidane and I see that everyone's waking up now that the strange blizzard has stopped. Garnet first notices us as we approach her.

"Zidane! Ron!" She yells.

"Hey, there. Everybody okay?" Zidane says with a smile.

Steiner walks up to us finding our happy and calm demeanors suspicious "You two! What just happened?" He asks us.

"Nothing much." I say, stretching out my arms.

"It was no big deal." Zidane says trying to wave off the question.

Steiner wasn't convinced. "You're hiding something!"

"Hey, nothing happened. You heard me and Ron." Zidane retorts back.

Steiner then got a look of fear on his face. "You two...didn't touch the princess, did you?" I lost my temper and forced him down on the ground giving him an ankle lock.

"I never touch a woman like that, you maniac!" I yell at him, increasing the pressure on the ankle.

"Ronald, stop that!" Garnet yells at me. "This is unnecessary; I know you and Zidane did not do anything!" I release Steiner and tell both him and Garnet, sorry. "And Steiner, they said nothing happened. Why are you being so rude?"

Steiner looks down "...My apologies, Princess."

Garnet nods and turns to Zidane. "Well, I'm glad everyone is safe. Shall we move on?" She notices Zidane staring out into space. "Is something bothering you?"

Zidane turns to her. "No... It's nothing." He responds as he leads us to the next room. We all head out to the exit and emerge into the mountain air, completely mist free.

Garnet sighs happily. "We made it through the Mist! Oh, the sun feels great!"

Zidane sees a town further from the mountain base. "Look, there's a village."

I check the map and see the name of village. "The map says that's the Village of Dali."

"I think I've been there before..." Zidane says to himself.

Garnet looks impressed. "It sounds like you've been everywhere before, Zidane." Then looks at the village. "The only other worlds I've visited are in books. You may have been to that village. Let's go visit." She tries to walk down the mountain, only to be stopped by Zidane.

"Wait. Hold it." He says, getting her attention. "You're a princess! You can't just go rushing in there. People are looking for you. You need a new identity."

Steiner walks toward Zidane. "Insolent fool! He then pushes Zidane which causes him to drop his dagger and Garnet picks it up. "The princess need not sneak around! Besides, we're heading back to the castle. You leave her alone. And you will address her as 'Princess' from now on, you silly peasant!"

Zidane gets angry. "Dammit, Rusty! Why don't you just shut up? Who do you think you are? I don't take orders from a stuck-up jerk like you!"

"You guys!" Vivi says trying to quell the fighting, I sit back and watch the scene unfold. After my last outburst, I don't think I should get involved right now.

"Stop it, you two!" Garnet says as Zidane and Steiner step away form each other. "...Steiner, I do not intend to return to the castle. And I do see Zidane's point. I need a new name..." She ponders looking at the dagger. "Zidane... What is this called?"

"That? That's a dagger." He informs her, and then goes into a big explanation, "All knives of that length are called daggers. Short swords are a bit longer. The big sword you hold with both hands is called a broadsword. And..."

"Oh, okay... I understand now." Garnet cuts off, to Zidane's dismay and my humor. She then looks closely at the weapon. "So this is called a 'dagger'..."

"Princess! It's a weapon! Please be careful." Steiner warns her.

Garnet turns to us "I've decided! From now on, my name is...I will be called Dagger from now on. What do you think, Zidane?"

"Is that okay with you?" He asks her.

"Yes." She responds.

"Great, Dagger." Zidane says, making use of Garnet's alias. "Now, let's work on your speech... Try to sound more casual. Like me."

"I shall try." She responds still in her polite tone.

"No, no, no..." He corrects her. He looks at me and Vivi for a moment, leaving us puzzled. "Just say... 'Alrighty.'"

"A-Alrighty!" Dagger stammers a bit.

"You're getting the hang of it!" Zidane congratulates her, to Steiner's dismay. "Well... Let's go." We all follow Zidane down the path to Dali, unaware of any other threats approaching.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Another chapter done, good people! A real strain on my fingers, but it's worth it! Now for the big closing statement.

Next Chapter: Ron and company visit the town of Dali, quiet little place….but they'll soon learn that not everything as it seems. The Secrets of Alexandria. Do you know? Stay tuned. And please R&R! Later people!


	6. CH6: Secrets inside Alexandria

**Duelist of Dawn:** Welcome back, previous readers! And if you're new to this story then, what's up!?

**Garnet/Dagger: **(giggles) You seem to be in a good mood right now.

**Duelist of Dawn:** When you know some people are out there reading your stories, reviewing and feelin' them, wouldn't you be happy as well?

**Garnet/Dagger: **Um, 'feelin' them?'

**Duelist of Dawn: **Oh right, Zidane and I are still teaching you how to speak like the common village folk. In my sense, it means to like and/or to understand something, a slang word, if you will.

**Garnet/Dagger: **Oh, I understand, I mean get it!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Good, good! You're really getting the hang of it! Now I thank FF & STH for his review, plus I can't wait to see what he brings to the fanfiction table! And I'll thank Aerith the Evenstar for her review, and it's the biggest one I've received so far. Now then, Dagger, if you would give out the disclaimer.

**Garnet/Dagger: **Alrighty! The Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy nine, its characters or the music used in the story.

**Duelist of Dawn: **I thinkshe's really got it down! And now we'll go on to the next exciting chapter! Read on!

*************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 6:**

**The Secrets of Alexandria**

(Third POV) ------ (Outside the Ice Cavern)

Approaching the Village of Dali are Zidane, Ron, Vivi, Steiner and Garnet (now taking the alias of Dagger), who are in need of some rest after their chilly trek through the Ice Cavern. But it was only a brief reprieve; they may have reached ground above the mist, but someone else is keeping a real, close eye them……

"So these are peasants who are guarding Princess Garnet?" A sinister voice muses to itself out loud. The voice was a bit squeaky but sinister enough not even care about that. The voice was coming from a being similar to the Black Waltz No.1, Zidane and Ron defeated. Along with the trademark pointed hat, it wore a blue magician's robe and had wings much bigger than the Black Waltz. The strangest thing was its lack of legs, but it didn't matter to it at all. It was also directing its attention to a small flying vehicle were Zorn and Thorn addressing the voice's owner.

"Yes, the Queen says so specifically." Zorn says.

"Eliminate them, the Queen orders!" Thorn commanded.

"At once, masters." The strange being answers. As soon as it about to take flight…….

"Be warned!" Zorn and Thorn yells.

"Hmm?" The strange being stops and turns around to the jesters. "Yes?"

"Do not underestimate the tailed boy and the human void of weapons!" Zorn warned.

"Formidable, they are to have beaten No.1!" Thorn adds in. The strange being laughs at the warnings.

"Which is why….." Less than a second, it appears next to Zorn, spooking him.

"……you created me with….." In another split-second, it appears next to Thorn who is not as afraid as Zorn.

"….teleportation abilities!" The last split second it appears in front of Zorn and Thorn again.

"We have, indeed!" Thorn says triumphantly. Zorn on other hand wasn't pleased.

"When did all of this happen?" Zorn asked Thorn, angrily.

"Told me, Master did, to add a single unique ability!" Thorn answered, smirking. "Besides, you worked on the other one, Master said." Zorn turns around, arms crossed.

"Whatever! Anyway, the objective goes as follows: capture the princess, kill her traveling party, and then return to Alexandria with the princess in hand!" Zorn briefs the being.

"Wait for signal then carry out orders, yes?" Thorn asks.

"But of course!" The being bows formally.

"THEN GO, BLACK WALTZ NO.2!!!!" Zorn and Thorn commanded and in a flash the legless Black Waltz disappears, awaiting his time to strike.

"He will succeed!" Zorn says, smirking.

"Of course, better creation than No.1!" Thorn yells. Then they turn towards a dark cave. "But always a improved version, there is!" Inside the dark cave, two red eyes open.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(Ron's POV) ------- (Inside the Village of Dali)

We all arrived at quaint little village called Dali, filled with your everyday needs: a shop for essentials, children playing around, and finally, an inn for weary travelers which happens to be our primary destination. Despite being early enough to walk about the place still, the small journey through the Ice Cavern and across the fields afterwards, we were not exactly in the best shape to do that. And speaking of the fields before Dali, we met a pretty nice customer along the way, after some ungrateful ones …….

(Flashback, the fields around Dali)

_As the gang and I walk towards Dali, we met up numerous monsters along the way, nothing we couldn't handle. First, those Trick Sparrows were a crafty bunch; those birds suddenly swooped out of nowhere trying to pick at our skins. Luckily, Vivi learned a Thunder spell out of the blue and shocked them all 'til they were extra crispy! Next, there were purple bugs called Carve Spiders. Now, you think you'd be freaked out by normal sized spiders, they are little kittens compared to Carve Spiders! They are way, way bigger than dog! Of course, aside from Steiner slicing them in half, Vivi torching them, and Zidane's stabbing, I actually got the chance to stomp like my mom does plus an Air Stomp Drill for good measure. After that we met an unexpected monster, the nice kind!_

"_Excuse me kind folk!" A voice said from behind us. After the bunch of monster attacks, we were a little hostile as we turned around, weapons drawn and fists ready, only to find something too cute for its own good: a Mu monster. But this wasn't just any Mu; normal Mus looked liked little blue foxes with a white tail tip, and had a bad habit of throwing stones at ya. __This__ Mu was brown furred all over and had pleasantness in its eyes. No one expected a monster to talk or be nice to travelers._

"_Uh, can we help you?" Zidane asked, making sure he heard this monster talk and putting our weapons away._

"_Oh yes, certainly!" The Mu jumped up excitingly, surprising everyone except me. "I was wondering, of any of you had any ore stones I could use?"_

"_Ore stones?" I asked it, which it responded with a nod. I turned to the others to figure something out. "Guys, you know something about the ore stones?"_

"_They're supposed to be small, blue stones that have minor healing powers."Steiner said._

"_Also they are somewhat common around monsters." Dagger said._

"_Not worth much, though." Zidane mused. "Don't know why the little guy would want one?" Vivi then stepped over to the Mu and pulled out something._

"_You mean something like this?" Vivi asked the monster. We all walked towards them to see what Vivi had, an ore stone!_

"_Where'd you get that?" I asked him._

"_I had it since I came in to Alexandria to see the play." He answered, while looking at the stone. "I didn't know what it was until now." Then he handed it over to the nice Mu. "You can have it." The Mu was overjoyed at the kindness displayed to it._

"_Oh, thanks so much!" It said. "I'll be sure to tell the others about you, bye!" Then it ran off to who knows where._

"_That was strange…" Steiner thought out loud._

"_At least it friendly, I couldn't stand another attack again!" I said. Zidane chuckled._

"_Yeah, I figured since the little 'stomping session' you had with the local spiders!" He laughed again causing everyone except me to join in._

"_Hey! When a spider THAT big gets into your personal space, I'll go insane for all you care!" I yelled in protest._

_(End Flashback)_

Vivi brought me out of my crazy flashback, "Gee whiz, there's a windmill!" He said curiously. I chuckled at his child antics. He wanted to get a closer look, but….

"Vivi, the inn is this way!" Zidane called out to him, pointing to a building next to where Steiner was standing.

"Aw, do we have to?" Vivi whined as Zidane nodded " ...But I wanna go see the windmill."

"I know. But let's get some rest first." Zidane told him. "We also need to decide what to do next."

"Okay." Vivi said, reluctantly.

"Let go get this room before it's booked." I told everyone as I opened the door to the inn, and everyone followed.

Inside the inn, we find a man snoozing at the front desk. In the lobby was a small fireplace, and display of breakfast foods. After returning my sight to the sleeping innkeeper, I couldn't believe that a man on the payroll was…

"Sleeping on the job?" Zidane finished my thinking statement. He walked to the innkeeper and lightly shook him awake. The guy snorted a bit before springing awake in his chair.

"Oh, I'm sorr...y. ......" The innkeeper yawned out. "Hmm?" He then stares in Vivi and Garnet's direction. I saw his eyes stare at Vivi, causing me to step right in front of him, glaring at the innkeeper, spooking him a bit. Zidane, Steiner and Dagger had no clue about this, and Vivi was confused a bit but didn't say anything as tired as he was.

"Hey, I know she's cute, but it's rude of you to stare." Zidane spoke to the innkeeper. Due to the glare I was giving him, the innkeeper jumped out of his thoughts.

"Oh, I-I wasn't looking at the young lady." He stammered. "I was just... The room is right over there." He pointed to the door right next to him. "Make yourselves at home." We all walked to the room in question, but Dagger was a bit nervous.

"Um...Zidane?" Dagger asked she scanned the lobby for other rooms. "Where will I be staying?"

Zidane pointed to the room the innkeeper showed us. "In the same room. Where else?" He responded.

"But, Zidane... I mustn't..." Dagger tried to protest. I saw Steiner was livid, as I knew what he was thinking: Zidane having no respect for privacy. But this was beyond the point.

"I understand how you feel, but these country inns don't have private rooms." Zidane assured Dagger. He then opened the door. "Get inside, everyone." He said to rest of us as we walked in. It was a four-bed room, knowing that one us older guys would be sleeping on the floor. Vivi immediately climbed on to one bed and let his dreams take hold of him.

'_Man, that's one tired kid.' _I thought in amazement, then turned my attention to the rest of my party.

"Tell me one thing before we go to sleep." I heard Zidane say. "Why did you wanna leave the castle, Dagger?"

"If the theater ship hadn't crashed..." Dagger started to say.

"It would've arrived at the neighboring regency of Lindblum." I finished for her causing everyone else to look at her in surprise.

"You were gonna leave Alexandria!?" Zidane asked. "I see. If you hadn't been caught, you would've reached Lindblum by now. But now... We'll have to cross South Gate on foot." He then put on a thinking pose. "Border crossing, huh?"

"Zidane, please listen." Dagger said bringing Zidane out of his thoughts. "There is a reason I must leave this kingdom. I cannot tell you why... But...please..."

"I understand... I'll get you to Lindblum somehow." Zidane said.

"I've heard enough!" Steiner yelled, breaking up the conversation. "Princess, you cannot trust the words of a thief! He may expose you to even more danger, like he did in Evil Forest! I beg of you, Princess. Please return with me to the castle."

Zidane groaned before addressing Steiner. "I know I screwed up in Evil Forest. But there's no doubt in my mind now. I'll protect Dagger with my life!"

"Don't be ridiculous! It is I who protect the princess, now and forever!" Steiner argued back.

"Then tell me. How do you intend to take her back to the castle?" Zidane asked him.

"I-I will think of a way..." Steiner stammered out, possibly trying to one up Zidane, until I broke the slience.

"Okay, listen." I said everyone turned to me. "Steiner, Dagger there are no hostilities between Lindblum and Alexandria, right?" I asked.

"No." Dagger calmly answered.

"Of course not." Steiner added in.

"And Dagger, do you plan on returning to Alexandria after your business is done?" I asked Dagger only.

"Well…." She started, but Steiner interrupted again.

"Forget it! She's coming back to the Alexandria!" He yelled at me. "I thought you of all people would understand the situation better than the thief, despite your actions towards me!"

"Oh, I understand." I tell him. "She has a personal problem she wishes to tell Lindblum's ruler, maybe family ties, but you're just preventing her from speaking her mind."

"Wait." Dagger walks up to me. "How did you know I had family in Lindblum?" She asked, earning me some suspicious looks from the men.

"Yeah, I did you know?" Zidane asks.

"I just figured since she is royalty after all, maybe Lindblum's ruler is her family." I assured them. "Just a simple guess, nothing more."

"Oh, okay…But wait, you still own me some answers!" Zidane quickly says. "About your powers and this sense of familiar air I have about you."

"I should I explain….." I started to say but……

"Zzz... Zzz..." We heard Vivi snore his sleep, looking very peaceful.

"Master Vivi..." Steiner whisperered.

"Sleeping peacefully." I told him.

"He was tired." Zidane said, turning to Steiner. "But you had to go on a tirade."

"What!?" He yelled.

"Let's just go to sleep." I said, tired of Steiner's yelling.

"Wait a sec…"Zidane said, but I cut him off.

"I tell you everything I know, but we really need to rest okay?" I asked him.

"Cool, but how are you sleeping, there's only four beds." He said.

"I got the floor, plus…" I reached under a bed and pulled out a spare blanket and pillow. "I'll have these they put under the bed."

"Well, every thing's settled, have a nice nap!" Zidane hopped on his bed and took his rest, Steiner and Dagger followed suit.

(Hours later….)

[la..lalala…..lalalalala……lalalalala..lalalalalala…]

'_Dagger?' I thought in my sleep. 'Is that her singing?' _I woke up afterwards to find everyone gone. _'Guess everyone's gone into town…' _I started to do my morning stretches and exercises before heading across to the shop. I found a good deal of shirts and bought them for 300 gil. Then, I walked over to a restaurant which also doubled as a pub. Even though hitting the 21-year old mark, I've never drunk any alcoholic beverages and I'm not starting now. I walk into the place to see a little girl tending the place behind the counter, she turns and smiles.

"Hello, may I help you?" She asks politely.

"Yes, are you serving any breakfast foods right now?" I asked her.

"Sure, we have a short stack of pancakes for 275 gil, would you like some?" She says.

"Yes, thank you very much." I say pulling out that amount out of a pouch I gathered from a monster. As for gil, besides gathering some spare change from the play, coming up to 1000 gil, surprisingly, I also gathered up about 2200 gil battling those monsters. I still don't get how they carry any money at all, but every little bit helps! I gave the girl the amount and she led me to a table.

"It'll be ready in a few minutes." She tells me, which I nodded in response. She goes back into the kitchen and prepares the meal. As the minutes past, I hear the door open again and Zidane comes in.

"Oh, there you are Ron." He asks, walking towards me. "I found Vivi and Dagger already, now I was searching for you, what'cha doin'?"

"Having some brunch." I said. Then I see the girl bring up the plate of pancakes and some syrup and silverware. "Right on time, thank you very much." I said to the girl, she smiled and nodded as she returned behind the counter. I poured the syrup over the pancakes and began cutting them up with the fork. "So what's up?" I asked Zidane before taking a bite out of the food.

"You think you could tell me about the abilities you've showing now?" He asked in a prying manner.

'_I don't think I can tell him about this universe being a video game, and I was dropped off here.' _I thought. _'Still, I could use some knowledge of the game to make my case, here goes.'_

"Okay first off, I'm like a wandering warrior, honing my skills against the local monsters around places." I start off. "I really don't have a home, just rest when I'm tired."

"Oh, so what made you come to Alexandria?" Zidane asked intriguingly. "If Vivi wasn't the reason, then what was?"

"The play, never really experience one up close." I told him, taking more bites of my pancakes. "But before I set foot in Alexandria, it felt like time stopped."

"Time stopped?" Zidane parroted.

"Yeah, and then a voice calls out telling me I've become part of an ultimate battle." I said. "Then I was injected with a syringe filled with red liquid."

"Ouch." Zidane winced.

"Heh, no kidding." I remarked. "I passed out and later woke up in Alexandria in front of Vivi."

"So that's how you two met; now I get it." He figured out. "I thought were his caretaker or a bodyguard, considering how you're built."

"Nah! Although, the little guy is growin' on me." I said, smiling. "Anyway, it's how I could use those abilities and use aura in my trance state, the combat skills are all my own." I finished my pancakes soon after and wiped my mouth.

"Okay, I also was wondering…" Zidane started

"…..How I look familiar to you back at the play?" I finished for him, knowing he'd ask that question next. "Sorry, I have no idea on that one."

"Alright, I'll leave that one alone, still strange though." Zidane said. "Come on, Vivi and Dagger are both waiting for us." We rose up out of the seats. Then I got the feeling we were missing something….

"Where's Steiner?" I asked.

"Who cares!? Remember, he doesn't want Dagger going to Lindblum." He says, not really caring for the knight.

"Right." I turned to the little girl and bowed to her. "Thank you for the meal!"

"You're welcome, glad you liked it!" She said cheerfully. Then Zidane and I walked back inside the inn, where Dagger was sitting her bed.

"Did you wait long?" Zidane asked her. "I asked Vivi to head back. He should be back soon. How do you like this village? Pretty different from the castle, I bet."

"Yes. The kids are very energetic, and there are so many things to see. I've never walked around so freely in my life!" She said exuberantly. I chuckled at her happiness.

"I bet it was a drag being cooped up within the castle walls, huh?" I asked her.

"Yes. I know it was for my own good, but I wanted to be able to make my own decisions by myself." She told me. "But something is bothering me about this village... Where are all the adults?" She ponders.

"Yeah... I used to see them tending the farm next to the village." Zidane wondered.

"But that farm is tiny." Dagger informed him.

"Yeah, it's kinda crazy that it's not big enough to produce more goods for the village." I added in.

"Yeah. There's something strange going on..." Zidane thought out loud. "We'll leave once Vivi gets back."

"But... What about Steiner?" Dagger asked him.

Zidane started to chuckle. "I have a good plan for crossing South Gate. It's gonna be easy! They're not looking for the rest of us, so we'll just hide you!" He then hopped up on the bed. "Forget about Rusty. Leave everything to me!"

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(2 hours later…..)

Zidane was telling me and Dagger a story during his Tantalus days, yet Vivi never came back…….

"...As it turns out, it didn't matter that we snuck into their mansion. But the Kings were hiding something in their mansion..." He then looked to me and Dagger, having something on our minds. "What's wrong? Am I boring you two?" He asked us.

"Oh, no. Your story is very interesting." Dagger assured him. "But I'm concerned about Vivi. Why isn't he back yet?"

"You're right. He is late. I'm not worried about Steiner, but Vivi, I'm not so sure about. Let's go look for him." Zidane said. We all left the inn and looked around for any sign of him.

"Wait a minute..." Zidane said. Dagger and I walked up to him.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"Last time I saw Vivi, he was standing over there." He pointed over near the windmill shed.

"Yeah, Vivi did want to see the windmill." I pondered. We all go closer until we heard something….

*Kweh!*

"Did I hear a chocobo?" Zidane asked. "Vivi said he heard a chocobo here." Then we heard something else…..

Sniff... Sniff...

"Is someone crying...?" Dagger asked looking around for anyone crying.

Sniff... Sniff...

"Hey, check the pipe." I said, pointing to the pipe. Zidane goes to look at a little pipe by the windmill shed.

Sniff… Sniff…

"It's coming from the hole.." Zidane leaned into the hole. "Vivi...?"

"...Zidane?" It was Vivi!

"Vivi! Where are you? Are you underground? Can you move?" Zidane was in a panic, but who wouldn't when a little kid gets kidnapped.

"They told me to stay here..." Vivi answered.

"Are you hurt?" Zidane asked.

"No." Vivi said.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out. We'll hurry, so stay where you are, okay?" Zidane assured him.

"...Okay."

"What's going on in this village...?" Zidane pondered, and then turned his attention to me and Dagger. "There's gotta be a way into the underground somewhere. Let's look for one."

"Okay!" Dagger said.

"It seems like such a quiet village..." I muttered. "Why don't we check the windmill hut for clues?" I asked Zidane. "I mean, the other buildings didn't have any place leading underground."

"You're right." Zidane said, and snapped his fingers. "And I know where, come on!" Zidane, Dagger, and I ran into the hut. I remembered that a key item was around here and I found it, a Stellazzio coin: Aries. I then turn to see Zidane cracking open a metal hatch.

"Heh, isn't this obvious?" Zidane smirked. "There's a cool breeze...Let's go." Dagger went down first, then me, then Zidane. Once inside, we run down a path to where some light in a little hut streams out.

"This isn't... ...just a regular storage facility." Zidane said. We see a chocobo near a pen who's staring curiously at us and a little hut ahead us. There are some barrels on the side of the hut with symbols on them: a green circle with a white plus inside.

"What's going on?" Dagger says.

"(Shhh!)" Zidane tries to keep quiet as he listens to some people talking inside the little hut.

"Why is it moving? Is it true that the mayor's brother found it?" The first voice asks, a man sounding older than I am.

"I guess they reconciled. His brother's one of us now." A second voice answers, another man having a younger voice.

"...Wasn't he on the old lady's side before?" The first voice asks, with confusion in his voice.

"Oh, about abandoning the farm?" The second voice responds. "He probably only said that because he was fighting with the mayor. Who cares? We need more workers anyway. Hey, let's put this in a box."

"I guess the guys at the castle will take care of it." The voice says.

"Yup. We're only in charge of production." The second voice responds.

"Gotcha." The first voice agrees.

"The castle!?" Zidane whispers. I turn to Dagger.

"You don't think Alexandria's behind this, do you?" I whisper to her.

"I don't know." She answers. She turns to see the barrels and gasps as she see the symbols.

"Come along, now." We hear three sets of footsteps coming out of the hut. We see two men come out of the hut with…..

"(Vivi!)" Zidane and I whisper in shock. The younger man drags Vivi out of the hut.

"Hurry up!" He says harshly.

"That bastard!" Zidane stands up, ready to fight. Dagger looks at me and points her eyes to Zidane, I get was she saying and go to restrain the young bandit.

"Wait a sec, man!" I whisper to him, dragging him back to the entrance of the underground, following Dagger. As soon as we're clear, I let go of Zidane but was punched in the shoulder by him, yet I hardly felt it.

"What was that for!?" He harshly asked. "We could've gotten Vivi back!"

"Dagger told to me so, it looked like had something important to say." I answered, slightly irritated at the younger guy's actions toward me. Zidane walks toward Dagger and asks, "What is it?"

"Did you see the large barrel next to the shed?" She asks us, and we both nod. "I've seen the exact same pattern on some of the barrels at the castle. This place must have some kind of connection with Alexandria Castle. I must know what it is! So please... I beg of you both, don't cause any trouble just yet." She pleads. Zidane sighs a bit.

"...Alright. But I will start trouble if Vivi is in danger. Agreed?" He asks us both.

"Sure." Dagger answers.

"Right." I say.

"Alright, let's go. They went further inside." We follow Zidane past the hut and into a larger room, where we see a large machine producing some weird looking balls. Zidane goes to walk over to it asking, "What the heck is that?" Suddenly, I hear crying…..

"Zidane!" I shout, grabbing his attention.

"What is it?" He asks running back to me and Dagger. Dagger points to a box where heard the crying from.

"Someone's crying..." She says. Zidane and I walk over to the box in question.

Sniff... Sniff... We hear the crying coming from it.

Zidane leans and asks, "...... ...Vivi?"

"Zidane!?" Vivi was inside the box!

"It IS you! We'll get you out!" Zidane yells. He turns to me and says, "Ron, break the lid down!"

"Gotcha!" I say, walking to the box. "Vivi?"

"Yes?" He asks.

"Duck down as much as you can in there and cover you head, I gonna punch a hole in it." I tell him. I hear a sliding noise against the wooden box.

"I..I'm ready.." I could tell he was scared, maybe because of the chance might hit him."

"Alright, here it comes!" I pull back my right fist and….

"HYAH!!!"

I punch a hole in it, and reach inside to pull the wood off the nails.

"Why would they stuff you in a box?" Zidane asks seeing me break down the wood/

"How could they...?" Dagger says sympathetically.

"U-Um..." Vivi tries to say.

"We'll talk later! Hooold on! ...It's open!" I pried off the lid and Vivi jumped out to hug me which I pat him on the head in return. Dagger and Zidane were relived to see the little black mage was safe and sound.

"What happened?" Zidane asked Vivi. He let go of me to face Zidane.

"After you left, some men kidnapped me and brought me here." He started. "They told me to stay put. I was so scared... I didn't know what to do. They asked me, 'Why were you outside?' and then they said, 'The cargo ship isn't even here yet.' I didn't know what they were talking about, so I didn't say anything, and then they said, 'Let's put it in with today's shipment.'"

"And they put you in that box?" Dagger asked, feeling angry at the men who imprisoned Vivi.

"...Yeah." Vivi answered.

"Well, I'm glad you're safe." I said. Zidane crouched down to face Vivi.  
"Listen, Vivi. You gotta do something next time. You should try-- screaming back or whatever." He tells him.

"Screaming...?" Vivi asks confused at the thought.

"Yeah, like...'Get off me, you scumbag!'" Zidane tells him. "It surprises your attacker and empowers you!"

"Huh... I see." Vivi said.

"I need to ask you a favor, Vivi." Zidane gets his attention. "We want to check out what's ahead. I know you might not be thrilled with the idea, but..."

"...Zidane, I wanna know more, too. Look... What is that thing?" Vivi points back at the gigantic machine spitting out more of those weird ball, which travels along down the assembly line.

"Alright, we'll all go together!" Zidane said. We all head to the next room seeing many of the same boxes where Vivi was held. I felt disgusted at the fact that people stuffed a living being inside of one. But then I got close to one, and it actually resembled a coffin, I wondered as we continued down path. The next room had those weird balls on the conveyor belt. Zidane thought they looked like eggs, which had the rest of us thinking that, too. As we try to, go to the next room, Zidane takes a peek in hole where the eggs disappear to.

"What do you see I ask?" I ask him.

"I can almost see inside..." He says, trying to get a good look. "...but I can't see anything. I just hear some noise." He puts his ear to the hole. "Are the eggs...hatching?" I do the same as him, and I start to hear something cracking open as well.

"Well, let's go see what's coming out of them." I suggest, to which everyone nods and follows me to the next room. But the thing inside the next room shocked Vivi to the core.

"Ahhh! What is this!?" He screamed. We all see large-scale version of Vivi-like black mages are coming out of the end of the 'egg' machine, and they ride lifeless on hooks that head towards a last machine.

"They're... Some parts are different, but..." Zidane says then whispers the last bit to himself. "(...They look like Vivi.)"

Vivi was still shaking from the shock of seeing other being that look like him. "Wh-What is this...? Are they...dolls?" He asks frighteningly. Then I hear footsteps approaching our direction. Zidane looks to me and points to Vivi, I nod seeing what he meant.

"Vivi! Dagger!" Unfortunately, Vivi was still shaking and Dagger was in thought.

"Why...? Is my mother behind this...?" She asks in disbelief.

"This is the only way!" Zidane says. "Ron now!" I nod picking up Vivi as Zidane picks up Garnet and both run, taking

refuge inside the last machine.

"Ahhh! ...Murf...! !!! ...!!!" Zidane covers Dagger's mouth as we hide.

"Sorry! But stay quiet!" He tells her.

"Hey! Did you say something?" We hear a young man's voice call out.

"Nope. Not me." A young lady's responds to the question.

"Okay. Never mind. It's almost time. Hurry it up, will ya?" The man says.

"I hear ya!" The lady yells. We all hear the footsteps leave, and all of us breathe out.

"That was close." I say. Then, a box drops in through the top of the machine and traps Zidane inside it.

"Whoa!" We hear Zidane being carried outside the machine and into the barrel.

"Zidane!?" Dagger yells, but we fail to notice a second box coming in to get Vivi.

"Ahhhhhh!" Vivi gets put in the barrel.

"Vivi!" Dagger yells again as I try to grab the box to no avail. Then, the awkward part comes: a third box drops in trapping myself AND Dagger inside together.

"Ow!" I say as the box gets sent into the barrel leaving Dagger lying on top of me. (A/N: No one gets any ideas.

"Sorry." She says.

"Oh, it wasn't you, the box landed where my back is." I inform her. I feel the barrel moving on something with wheels, maybe a wagon. Dagger sees the shocked expression on my face.

"Is something wrong, Ron?" She asks sounding concerned.

"I'm kinda claustrophobic, plus it's hard to escape without trying hurt to you in the process." I inform her.

"It's okay." She reassures me. "We're going to get out of this." I nod. Suddenly, we feel the movement stop causing us to knock heads.

"OW!!" We yell at the same time. "Sorry." We say again.

"I wonder what they're gonna use them for?" We hear a guy's voice outside the box. "We've been making lots of 'em since they set up the factory six months ago."

"Six months?" Dagger asked.

"Who cares? This is a piece of cake compared to farming. Better money, too." A second voice says.

"Figures people trying to grab a quick payoff." I say, dryly.

"...... H-Hey! Is that scary guy in armor running towards US!?" The first voice says.

"Scary guy in armor?" I thought out loud. Then it hit me….

"Steiner!" Dagger yells having the same thoughts I had.

"...... Let's get outta here!" The voices outside yells and flee the scene.

"Man, I never thought I'd be happy to see Steiner." I say to myself. Dagger laughs.

"Why don't you like him?" She asks holding her laughter.

"I know he's loyal to you and all, but needs to control and learn to watch himself as well." I say. "I try to get his attention."

"This barrel... What could be inside!? What could they possibly be shipping out from this village?" We hear Steiner says. I then rock the barrel. "What the--Did I just see that barrel move? Let's see..." I hear a sword being removed from its sheath.

"Oh he's not gonna…" I didn't want to finish the thought, Steiner's sword did. It almost hits my back, but it hit someone who I didn't know was close to me and Dagger……

"OW! OOOWWWWWWCH!!!" I hear Zidane yell and break out of the barrel. "What did you do that for!?"

"You!!!" Steiner yelled.

"You almost stabbed Dagger!" Zidane yelled at him

"The princess!?" Steiner sounds terrified as we heard a clanging noise."Ouch!"

"Serves you right, now let's get everyone out!" Zidane yells. He and Steiner break all of us out, but Steiner was livid finding me and Dagger in the same box.

"Princess, what in the world is going on!?" He yells escorting Dagger out, but pulls me out by the collar of my shirt. "You scoundrel! Is this your doing!?"

"No! Get off me!" I say, yanking his arm off of me. He tries to grab me again until Dagger steps in.

"Steiner, please!" She yells at him.

"But Your Highness…." Steiner protested but was cut off.

"He didn't do anything but protect me from being hurt inside that barrel!" She scolds him/

Steiner slumps down. "Yes, Your Highness..."

Dagger walks over to Zidane to talk to him about Vivi. "Zidane, I don't know what to say to Vivi. I never knew anything suspicious was going on at the castle..."

Zidane thinks for a minute before responding. "We still don't know for sure. Let's stay by Vivi's side." Dagger nods, and then Zidane talks to Steiner. "Yo, Rusty, do you know where this airship's going?" He asks.

I see Steiner hesitating for a minute. "...... ...L-Lindblum. Yes, to Lindblum." He stutters out.

Zidane looks thrilled. "That's convenient! Did you ask someone?" He asks.

Steiner points in the direction of a nearby mountain."Th-The old man in the shack told me! So it must be true!" I wasn't convinced.

"Steiner, don't….." I then sensed something coming, something similar to a previous fight. I turned around to see a flying, legless black mage coming. I immediately got into fighting position. "Something is headed this way!" I yelled to the others. The mage fly over but starts teleporting all over the place, trying to intimidate us. Little did any one know, I followed the black mage's exact movements. It wasn't until the thing started speaking did I know where he came from…..

"Princess Garnet, the queen is waiting for you at the castle!" It said in a squeaky, yet deeper voice than Black Waltz No.1, wait that's it!

"You're one of those Black Waltzes aren't you!?" I yelled getting ready to fight.

"You were all sent by the castle!?" Zidane yelled grabbing daggers. We both earned confused looks from Dagger, Vivi and Steiner.

"What? What are you two talking about!?" Steiner asked.

"Remember that blizzard that knocked you out?" I asked. They all nodded.

"A creature caused like this guy caused it." Zidane said pointing at the flying mage. "It said it was a Black Waltz!"

The creature looked in disbelief."No. 1 was defeated by a monkey and a human!? I am Black Waltz No. 2! My power, magic, and speed make me far superior to No. 1! Resistance is futile!" The Black Waltz held its hand out to Dagger. "Come, Princess. The queen awaits!"

Dagger stepped back behind me. "No! I will not return to the castle." She says to the Waltz. It started to growl.

"Come with me, or you'll regret it!" It threatened.

"Wait! I, Steiner, shall escort the princess back to the castle!" Steiner informed it.

"Kee hee hee! You think I care? I won't let you stand in the way of my mission!" It said getting ready to fight. "Princess, stay there while I kill the others."

(Play Divine Spirit of Language-Star Ocean 3) (A/N: This music rocks!)

"Take this!" No. 2 yelled and started to teleport around the front. I was able to follow the movements until….

"Ha!" He almost hits me but I jump back giving it an uppercut to his face. "How did you find me!?" He asked looking shocked as he backed off.

"Heh, I can read your movements thanks to your aura pal!" I said having a big smile on my face.

"Yes, but how about your friends?" The Black Waltz does the same teleport tactic. It thinks that since Zidane and the others couldn't read his movements fast enough, he could do some damage, but….

"Steiner, slash to your right!" I yelled, and Steiner followed hitting the Black Waltz dead on.

It tried to follow up Zidane and Vivi, but with more quick commands from me, they evaded and struck with their weapons.

"AHHH!!" It yelled in pain, and then looked towards me with killer intent. "Fine, you die first!" It charged up its magic and then released it. "Fira!"

This created a miniature tornado of fire which surrounded me and started burn me.

"Ron!!" I heard Vivi and Dagger yell out. As the fire died out, I had burn marks all over my arms.

'_No! Can't die yet!' _I thought and I felt the Waltz show up behind me trying to score a free hit, but I ended up rolling forwards to dodge as Vivi shocked him with a thunder spell.

"Kee hee hee! This is how a real thunder spell is done!" The Black Waltz charged up magic and launched four thunder bolts at everyone except Dagger, knocking us down.

"Ugh! Man he's tougher than the first one; he doesn't need a buddy to help him out." Zidane groaned. Then was struck in the back, followed by Vivi and Steiner.

"Of course!" No.2 praised. "My power is more than enough for some blasted sea mammal!" It then floated towards me and picked me up charging magic. "Now you die!" It tried to deliver some magic to me but….

"Stop!" Dagger ran over and smacked the Waltz with her rod. It turned around to see Dagger with a angry look on her face.

"Princess! Don't interfere!" It commanded her.

"No, I won't let my friend be killed!" She said ready to swing her rod again.

"Princess, you…AHHH!!" The distraction let Zidane slash the creature's body, causing it to release me. Garnet took the time to heal everyone with Cure spell. I then noticed my hands and arms were glowing bluish-white as the Black Waltz got up.

"I had enough!" He raised his hands to charge magic again, Fira maybe since it's the strongest attack he's done. "My mission is to retrieve the Princess!!"

I took the time to slam my fists into the ground and yell: "ICE TOMB!!" The glow receded from my arms and traveled through the ground in a icy path. As soon as it reached the Waltz, it stopped charging magic and looked to the ground at the ice circle below it.

"What the…AHHHH!!!!" The ice circle sprouted icy spires that pierced through its entire body. Vivi took his time to unleash the thunder spell through the spires conducting it and doing a massive thunderstorm-like attack on the immobilized Black Waltz. We all looked in all at the damage being done. As soon at it was done, the ice cracked and the Waltz fell to the ground having a seizure.

"W-Wh….Why....?" It choked out before it died and evaporated.

(End music)

"Man, that was incredible!" Zidane yelled grabbing me and Vivi in headlocks. "You guys stole the show with that combo!"

"Zidane, let go." I said wincing at my burns. He released us both, apologizing all the while.

"Black Waltz No. 2..." We turned to see Dagger thinking out loud. "Did my mother really send him to capture me...?"

"It can't be! There is no reason to trust the words of some bandit." Steiner cut in, and then pointed at Zidane. "He was just another criminal, scheming to use the princess for some evil deed."

Dagger then looked irritated. "Have I not been careful enough?"

"Your noble upbringing cannot be disguised so easily." Steiner said proudly.

"Shut up, Steiner!" I yelled him while Vivi hid behind Dagger at my outburst.

"What!?" He said look at me.

"That's not true at all." Zidane added in. "You haven't been watching. Dagger is trying really hard." He then pointed a finger at Steiner. "You're the one with the problem! Walking around, yelling 'Princess!' everywhere..." He then turns to Dagger and Vivi. "About the border crossing..."

"Yes?" She asks.

"Why don't we hitch a ride on this airship?" Zidane suggests.

"Sure, Lindblum should not be terribly far by airship!" She says but catches her slip up in her language. "I mean...'won't be too far.' But why don't we get some rest before we go?"

"Okay. Let's head back to the village." Zidane told us and turned to Vivi. "Vivi, you'll be safe with us." We all headed back inside the inn and rested up. Man that was one Hell of battle! I hope we have a better time against Black Waltz No.3, wherever he is……

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Yay, another chapter done, another boss defeated!

Next chapter: We all ride the airship….which heads to Alexandria, but Zidane has other plans for the destination, much to Steiner's dismay. But still we are about to get an unwanted passenger in the form of the last Black Waltz….can we beat someone powerful than No.1 and No.2 combined? Find out in chapter 7: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Riding Airships! Please rate and review, and I'll see ya then!


	7. CH7:Hitchiker's Guide to Riding Airships

**Duelist of Dawn: **Alright! My reviews have made it past 20 twenty, I'm really doing alright for my first long-term story.

**Vivi: **You sure are, you even got a new reviewer!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Yeah, thank you Khiruki! I also hope to see what kind of stories you bring out to FanFiction! Also Aerith the Evenstar, Katherine the Black Rose, and FF&STH, thanks for the continuing reviews! I still can't believe I got readers who haven't played this game!

**Vivi: **Yeah, it's like an in-depth look into the game! It's a shame that Final Fantasy 9 is rare to see these days.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Or any of the early Playstation Final Fantasy games; I'm lucky to have them all.

**Vivi: **Hey, can I do the disclaimer this time, please?

**Duelist of Dawn: **Of course you can, go ahead!

**Vivi: **Thank you! The Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy nine or any of the music he uses for the story.

**Duelist of Dawn:** Alrighty then! Let's start the seventh chapter!

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**Chapter 7:**

**The Hitchiker's Guide to Riding Airships**

After our little run-in with the No.2 Black Waltz, Dagger thought it'd be best to rest up at the end. I wouldn't complain about it, when that flying, magical demon used a second level fire magic on me, it left me burned on the arms. So back at the room, Dagger was tending to my wounds with her white magic abilities while everyone else was waiting….

"Ow!" I winced at Dagger's touch on my arms trying to heal them.

"Sorry, but you have to hold still; otherwise I won't be able to heal them completely." She said getting ready to use her Cure magic. Good thing she wasn't kidnapped, I wondered why….It had to the chance to take Garnet and fly away, but it wanted to kill me first.

"Hey, guys." I said, grabbing everyone's attention. "Remember how that Black Waltz said that its mission was to capture Dagger?"

"Yeah, I bet the first was the same." Zidane said.

"Uh-huh." Vivi said.

"Of course." Steiner added.

"Back at the battle, when it hit us with that multi-thunder spell, it had that chance. But instead, it went after me to finish me off, don't you think that's strange?" I asked.

"Oh!" Dagger exclaimed, with everyone turning to her. "Since you were all knocked down, he could've grabbed me and teleported me back to the castle!"

"Someone must've been ordering it to kill us as a side job." Zidane figured. "At least we're safe now."

"Don't count on it." I said bluntly, causing everyone to look my way again. "There's another one coming." Everyone gasped.

"What do you mean, another one!?" Steiner yelled.

"I get it!" Zidane exclaimed. "There's a third one because of the name 'Black Waltz!'"

"Huh?" Steiner still didn't get it.

"In music terms, a waltz is a dance using three beats." I said, mainly to Steiner. "So it'd make sense if there's another one."

"But it would be the last one, right?" Vivi asked, looking a little bit scared. I can see why, Vivi's been emotional hit hard seeing that Black Mage factory underground. He's probably questioning his existence right now, poor guy.

"Yup, but well beat this one, too!" I said. Dagger went back to healing my arms, which were still having that burning feeling to them. After a few minutes, my arms were healed on the outside, but still felt some pain in the muscle.

"After we rest, you should be okay to battle again." Dagger said, stepping back to check my arms' recovery.

"Thanks, Dagger." I said gratefully, to which she smiled and nodded.

"Alright, let's take quick nap!" Zidane said hopping on his bed. "That airship should still be there, since it'll take a long time loading the cargo." Then we all fell asleep.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(Couple of hours later…..)

*Yawn..*

I was the first to wake up as I got off the floor. After that little camping trip outside Evil Forest, I was use to sleeping on the floor; but it would be nice to sleep on a bed again. I looked at my arms and moved them around and the pain was gone! I stretched out and did some push-ups as everyone else started to wake up. As soon as we were ready, we left the inn paying the keeper (who was still asleep, by the way). I left him a little note explaining how I knew he setup Vivi's kidnapping and that he shouldn't be sleeping on the job, lest he lose it. Too bad, I wouldn't be there to see his face as we got to the cargo airship.

"Wait here while I ask the people inside if we can hitch a ride." Zidane told us. He was about to walk towards the airship, before Steiner cut in…

"I-I shall go ask them!" The knight hastily said. Zidane, Dagger and I looked at him suspiciously, before Zidane broke the silence and narrowed his eyes at the guy.

"Oh, really….." Zidane said. "How come?"

"I-It is not for your benefit." Steiner said again hastily. "I am only doing this for the princess!" He runs off into the airship.

"Steiner, get back here! Why are you being so helpful all of a sudden!?" I shouted but with no response. He either didn't hear me or didn't care, and if my hunch about this airship was correct, it was the latter.

"Steiner... He was so adamant about going back to the castle before..." I heard Dagger say to herself as I turned to her listening on. "...... An airship full of barrels like the ones I saw at the castle... Steiner was against going..." She gasped and turned to me and Zidane. "Guys, is this ship really headed for Lindlum?"

"No, it's probably going to Alexandria Castle; Steiner was trying to double-cross us!" I said angrily. If you saw the look on my face, people would be out of way.

"He's right." Zidane agree. Dagger then looked even more shocked.

"But why...? Didn't you just say we should get on the ship?" She questioned. Zidane just smiled.

"Yeah, I know. Trust me!" He said. I suddenly got what he was going to do…

"Are you trying to change the course of the airship?" I asked him, just to be sure. He laughs and slaps my back.

"Yeah! Man, you catch on quick!" He says, laughing some more.

"...Zidane, Ron." We all turn to Vivi, who was looked down at his feet.

"What is it, Vivi?" Zidane asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, what's up?" I asked him, also looking concerned and Dagger was looking worried.

"Those dolls they were making underground... Did you think they look like me?" He wondered.

"Maybe a little... But they're just dolls, Vivi." Zidane answered. Vivi nodded and turned to me.

"Ron?" He waited on my answer. I wasn't going to lie to him, he really needs to know my thoughts on this, whether opinion or fact. I walked up to him and got down on one knee.

"To me, they did." I told him. "But still, they're different from you." Suddenly, the airship's propellers start up.

"It's moving. What the heck is Steiner up to?" Zidane wondered.

"Maybe he thinks we're on already." I say. "Or most specifically, Dagger."

"Maybe…" Zidane ponders, and then takes Dagger's hand. "Alright, we have to get on, Dagger."

Dagger hesistated. "On a ship that's not going to Lindblum!?" She asked, looking worried.

"I don't have time to explain. This way!" Zidane took her and ran over to the ladder at the back-end of the ship. I climbed up the ladder first and held out my hand helping Vivi on. The back end's walk way was narrow; it would be hard to get five people standing around.

"Hurry up! You have nothing to worry about. Hurry, before she takes off!" Zidane was still trying to convince Dagger to get on the airship.

"But..." Dagger was still hesitant.

"I'll take you to Lindblum. I promise!" Zidane said. Finally, Dagger caved in.

"Fine, I'll get on!" She said as she proceeded to climb the ladder, as she did the airship started to lift off the ground.

"It's taking off!" Zidane went to jump on the ladder, but in the process……

"Aaah!!"

…..touches Dagger's back-end.

"Ooo, soft..." Zidane childishly said, while I was bugging out at how bold he was on that move. Dagger finally reaches me and Vivi as the cargo ship takes off and flies away from Dali. As soon as Zidane safely makes it on, I grabbing and put him in a headlock.

"Now what was that all about, playboy?" I said applying the pressure. Zidane just smiled.

"Come on, it's not like I did it on purpose." He said, not trying to play off his antics.

Dagger scoffs and crosses her arms. "Please, enough." I took that time to release Zidane from the lock as he cracks his neck a bit.

"There's that royal tone in your voice again." He addresses Dagger, who answers with a 'humph!' I then look at Vivi who's holding on to the rail, looking down at the sky with a dizzy expression.

"...Are you okay, Vivi?" I ask, looking worried.

"Feels like I'm going to get sucked into the sky..." He mutters. Dagger takes Vivi's hand and opens the back door to the cargo ship.

"Let's go inside, Vivi." She says in a motherly tone as she lets Vivi in. Before she goes in herself, she turns to Zidane.

"I trust you, Zidane." She says bluntly as she walks in the ship. Zidane was about to follow before she slams the door in his face. I snicker at Zidane who backs off a bit, before turning to me.

"I get the feeling she doesn't quite trust me yet..." He says. "Maybe she'll reward me with a kiss or two if I try hard enough." He adds hopefully.

"That's never gonna happen, if you pull stunts like that again." I tell him. Then, the door opens again revealing Dagger looking worried.

"Ron, Zidane...!" She says.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Something wrong?" Zidane asks.

"It's Vivi..." She mutters.

"Vivi?" Zidane and I say as we all go inside, finding Vivi trying to talk to the crew of the ship…..

Which turned out to be some of the factory-made black mages from Dali! Vivi was trying to talk with some of them, but they kept ignoring him.

"...! Wow, they're alive, and they're moving around!" Zidane was shocked at the discovery.

_"So, the mages built in the village bring back the new ones?" _I thought to myself.

"Oh, Vivi..." Dagger looked on at Vivi, trying harder to get the black mages' attention.

"Vivi!" Zidane called out to him. Vivi stopped trying to get an answer out of the crewman and start walking towards us, with tears in his eyes.

"Were you able to talk to any of them?" Zidane asked.

"No..." Vivi answered, in between sobs. "It's like... ...they don't even... ...see me at all... I tried... ...again and again... ...but... ...they won't even turn around."

"Vivi…" Zidane says, but Vivi doesn't look at him; Zidane then turns to Dagger and I.

"I need to go upstairs for a little bit." He tells us. "I gotta turn the ship around before it reaches the castle."

"Okay." I say, nodding.

"Keep an eye on Vivi, okay?" He asks, in which me and Dagger nod as he races down the ship and goes up to the deck. Dagger goes to comfort Vivi, as I looked out the window.

'_Zidane better hurry up, we're about couple hours away from Evil Forest.' _I thought. Then suddenly, the ship starts to jerk to the left causing everyone to fall down. I managed to pick my self, rubbing my back.

"Well, that was unpleasant.." I groaned out. I walk to the window again and see some approaching mountains. _'I guess he got control of the airship.' _I thought, smiling. _'Steiner's gonna be pissed, if he's up there with him.' _I walk over to Dagger and Vivi and help them up.

"You two okay?" I asked.

"I'm okay." Dagger said, dusting her clothes off.

"Me too." Vivi said, doing the same as Dagger. "Hey look!" He points to all the Black Mages who get up and started to climb to the deck.

"I think they're mad about the sudden change of destination." I say out loud.

"We better get up there, Zidane and Steiner might be in danger!" Dagger says walking over to the ladder with me and Vivi following after.

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(Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains behind the cargo ship……)

Zorn and Thorn look on from their small airship, as the cargo ship veers off course from its destination and heads off west….

"Why is that ship going somewhere else!?" Zorn yelled as he held the steering wheel of the ship.

"The princess's lackeys, it must be." Thorn thought out loud. "Use our final weapon, this means."

"Yes, it does." Zorn told his partner. They both turn to their third passenger. The passenger wore a midnight-blue coat, tan pants, brown shoes and carried a bronze staff with a sun statue on the top of it. The shocking thing was he had wings and a pointed hat like Black Waltzes 1 and 2, but it looked more intimidating with its red eyes looking sinisterly at the runaway cargo ship.

"Okay, we hoped it wouldn't come to this." Zorn said to the passenger. "But it looks like we have to use you."

"It seems so." The passenger responded with an intimidating voice, not a hint of squeakiness in it.

"Return to Alexandria with Garnet and cargo safely, we hoped." Thorn said. "But interfered, the intruders have."

"So you wish to have these intruders killed?" The passenger asked.

"By any means necessary." Zorn replied.

"And retrieve the princess?" It asked again.

"Certainly, yes!" Thorn said with a crazy grin.

The passenger stood up and spread its wings.

"I shall go, masters," It said.

" THEN GO FORTH, BLACK WALTZ NO.3!!!!!" The jester shouted.

"This won't be long." The Black Waltz said darkly, as lightning covered him and it flew off in hot pursuit of the cargo ship.

"Get the job done, he will." Thorn said.

"Just hope its power doesn't get in the way." Zorn muttered. "He may be more powerful than 1 and 2 combined, but it could turn on us as well."

"Rubbish!" Thorn shouted. "Obey, it will!" Zorn still didn't seem so as it looked on the upcoming battle…..

**************************************************************************************************************************

(Back on the cargo ship)

On the deck, Dagger, Vivi and I climbed up from the deck. Just then, we all see the third Black Waltz descends onto the deck.

"No...!" Vivi was stunned at the sight of the Black Waltz. As soon as it raised it's hand and charged it with lightning, I pushed Vivi away and blocked in time to take the attack.

"Grrrrrr!!!!" I felt the electricity course through me, but I was resilient enough to push off the Black Waltz. I felt the electricity seep into my arms; the force of the attack hurt me, but as soon as I broke contact, the pain stopped.

"Huh?" I said looking at arms. Dagger and Vivi ran up to me.

"Ron! Are you okay!?" They asked looking worried.

"I'm fine.." I said, still not understanding what I felt. We all turned to the Black Waltz. I got up, and got ready to fight. "You must be Black Waltz No.3!" It narrowed it's evil red eyes me and Vivi.

"So, No. 2 was defeated by a small child" It began to say, then directed it's attention at me. "And you must be the human that helped. You are no match against my power! Kwahahaha!" Then it turned to Dagger. "Princess, stay there while I eliminate this child!" It started to walk towards, but stopped.

'_Why'd he stop?' _I thought. I then turned around to see the Black Mage crewmembers swarm towards the Black Waltz and formed a wall.

"Are you protecting them?" It asked, but received no response. "...Nonsense. You are no different from mindless dolls! What can you do? Get out of my way!" It yelled as Dagger and I got Vivi to the cargo ship's cockpit. Zidane and Steiner were confused at the gathering of the Black Mage.

"What's going, guys?" Zidane asked.

"The 3rd Black Waltz is here!" I said.

"What!?" Steiner said looking on at the approaching danger.

"Do you dare to fight a Black Waltz?" We heard the Black Waltz say. It raised it's hands and charged up a massive amount of electricity. "I said, get out of my way!"

"LOOK OUT!!!!" I shouted to the Black Mages, but it was too late. An explosion rips around the cargo ship, shaking everyone in the cockpit. But the black mages weren't as lucky. They were thrown around outside and thrown off the ship, as Vivi watches on in painful silence. Then, the barrels holding the inactive mages drop out of the sky, and shatter. The Black Waltz crackles with energy as we everyone looks on in anger at it. If there was one part of the game I'd never forget, it was this one.

"Wh-What cruelty!" Steiner was the first one to break the sorrowful silence. I looked to see Vivi, shaking as Dagger held him. I couldn't believe as I witnessed a massacre up close. All of those black mages, gone… They were alive, they were living beings……

"...Aaahhh!" Vivi shouted and ran out of the cockpit to fight the Black Waltz.

"Vivi!" I yelled running after him.

"Master Vivi, Ron, I shall assist you!" I heard Steiner running behind us.

We all confront the Black Waltz, staring at him with vengeance.

"Why...? Why would you do such a thing!? Weren't they your friends!?" Vivi asked breaking down in anger and sadness.

"You fool! Do I look like some lowly black mage soldier!?" The Black Waltz yelled back.

"Even if they weren't your allies, what you did was reprehensible!" Steiner yelled. The Black Waltz just laughed off the knight's command.

"Kwahahaha! Worry not about them: many more are being produced even now!" It said, showing no remorse for life.

"It doesn't matter, you bastard!" I yelled, feeling angrier then I ever had in my life. "Their lives are irreplaceable!" Just then, Zidane came up ready to fight as well.

"What are you?" He addressed at the evil Waltz.

"Ah, the princess's bodyguards have gathered!" It said ignoring Zidane's question. "How very convenient!"

"Answer me!" Zidane retaliated.

"It wouldn't do you any good if I answered, since you're all going to die!" The Waltz said spreading its wings. "Kwahahaha! I will eliminate any who stand in my way!"

(Play Powerbroker- From Star Ocean 3)

Vivi starts glowing white as I feel power growing around him. I smiled at the little guy as his Trance state was finished forming. In this state, Vivi's magic was shining around him and his staff. His eyes had more determination and power within them. And his appearance changed: before his clothes looked all worn out, but now they look brand spanking new! Even his hat was brimming with power as it was now pointy as the Black Waltz.

"Fire!" Vivi cast his magic and released it at the Waltz. It blocked the explosion with its staff, but staggered back a bit. Vivi took notice of that and cast another spell. "Blizzard!" An ice block formed around the Black Waltz's foot and froze it.

"What!?" It shouted at Vivi. "You shouldn't be this powerful!" It took it'd eyes off us and used it staff to break the ice. But it didn't work!

"My ice is a lot more thicker than normal!" Vivi said triumphantly. "You'll never break it!" Zidane use that distraction to slice at the Black Waltz, but was blocked by the staff. But Steiner was able to hit it in the torso causing No.3 to cringe in pain. Then I followed up with a super kick to the face.

"Grrr…I won't be defeated!" It shouted and raised the staff high in the air. "Thundara!" Lightning shot out from the staff and started shock us to bone.

"Ahhhh!!!!" We all shouted as we were forced down from the intense shock, at least Steiner, Zidane and I were, Vivi was able to send most of the shock to the surrounding mountains.

'_Damn! Vivi's Trance is a lot more braver and smarter!' _I thought. _'No one would've thought about doing that!'_

I also felt my arms cracking with electricity; it must've reacted to the Thundara spell that was set off. But before I tried to use it, I threw some potions at Zidane and Steiner which healed them enough to stand again. I then tried to gain some control over this electricity coursing through my arms.

"That hurt!" Zidane said picking up his daggers.

"Master Vivi and Ron need our assistance!" Steiner pointed at me and Vivi attacking in combination. Vivi distracted and harmed the Waltz with magic while he kept trying to find a vital spot to do more damage as I was beginning to focus my new ability.

"Hey Ron, need a little help!?" Zidane asked standing next to me.

"Yeah, I need more time to charge up." I told him, still trying to focus.

"Say no more!" Zidane charged in again and drew the Black Waltz's attention away from me. Steiner charged in himself and started swinging wildly to block the oncoming magic and staff attacks. About a minute later, my focus paid off as the electricity started to brighten my arms and form blades on my hands.

"Alright guys, move!" I shouted as I started to run towards the battle. The Black Waltz somehow broke free of ice and rushed at me with its staff ready to block my attack.

"Lowlife human!" It shouted as it kept running to me. "Thunder is my element, it won't harm me!" It charged thunder magic on its staff and swung at me. It nearly hits me as Steiner knocks the staff away out of its hands.

"My turn, ELECTRIC BLADES!!" I cross my hand-blades and swiped across his face, shocking him to his surprise. And to add more insult to injury….

"Thunder!" Vivi casts his thunder magic at the face as well, which destroyed one of his eyes and forced the Black Waltz to the front of the airship.

(End music)

The Black Waltz No. 3 was trying to hold himself by the staff he picked up again and stared at us with his one good eye. "You... You scum...! I exist only to kill!" He shouted and flew off in a hurry. Steiner was angry at the Waltz's retreat.

"Just how many Black Waltzes do we have to fight!?" He yelled. "This is becoming ridiculous!" Me and Zidane just groaned at Steiner's ranting.

"That was the last one." Zidane said dryly.

"How do you know!?" Steiner still on his mindless rant, then he thought something really stupid "Are you...!?" He was interrupted by my fist knocking him down.

"Remember a Waltz has three beats." I said, looking down at him. "Don't you think No. 3 would be the last one?"

"What?" He said absent-mindly.

"Why do I even bother!?" I said walking to Vivi, who's Trance state had worn off. "Hey Vivi, impressive stuff back there…." I stopped as I see him looking at a pointy hat that used to belong to one of the black mage whom protected us. I then walked over to the left side of the ship looking at the mountains.

*************************************************************************************************************************

(Somewhere else, in a ship, Zorn and Thorn watched the fight and both were shocked at the outcome.)

"Did you see that?" Zorn asked in astonishment.

"That I did see!" Thorn answered in the same manner. They had a short pause before shouting at the same time…..

"Our enhanced black mages!"

"Our black mage enhancements!"

"All defeated!" Zorn looked down.

"Betrayed us, Steiner did! It is all his fault!" Thorn shouted. During Thorn's angry rant, Zorn saw something approaching their ship and let go of the steering wheel to get a better look.

"Huh?" He said.

"Unstable, the ship becomes!" Thorn shouted, gripping the wheel. "Don't let go of the steering wheel!" Zorn pointed in the distance…

"No. 3 is coming back!" Zorn shouted in happiness.

"True is it!? Hurray!" Thorn praised. But it was cut short when they saw something wrong with their 'prized weapon.'

"But something is wrong..." Zorn tried to see No.3's look and saw its one eye with killer intent…..aim at them! "It's broken!!!" He cried in panic.

"Made its magic too powerful, we did!" Thorn shouted.

"There's nothing we can do now!" Zorn concluded. And then at the same time again……

"Depart shall we!"

"We shall depart!"

"Run away!"

"Run away!"

The two jokers jump out of the ship before the Black Waltz No. 3 sits down in the captain's seat.

"I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill...!" It shouted in a mindless mantra.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(Back on the cargo ship)

I close my eyes a bit, seeing all different types of aura, thinking it was cool to see it all. The birds' light blue aura, the world's green aura, and the raging dark red aura of a Black Waltz No. 3 coming to kill us……..WHAT!!!!!?? I open my eyes to see, in a small ship, the 3rd Black Waltz coming back for round 2!

"Steiner! Go tell Zidane and Dagger that Black Waltz is coming back!" I tell him.

"Right!" He saluted and ran to the cockpit.

'_This going to get rough.' _I thought. _'South Gate might close in on us, if we're not careful.' _

The cargo ship heads for South Gate, veering away from the mountains. Suddenly, the smaller airshipof the Black Waltz heads in from the right side and knocks off the hat Vivi was looking at with its tailwind. Vivi starts to get angry again as the ship gets closer. The Black Waltz starts to start charge magic but was cut short by Vivi.

"Fire!" He blasts it withsome fire magic, knocking it off course a bit. But that last bit of power knocks Vivi unconscious.

"Vivi!" I shouted as I go to drag him to the cockpit. Zidane comes over and helps me.

"What happened to him!?" He asks.

"I think he's feeling fatigue from the Trance state!" I said as the ship enters South Gate as it closes in on us. We barely make in as the back of the ship hits the closing doors almost knocking me, Zidane and Vivi off the ship. Zidane grabs Vivi by the collar of his coat while he and I latch on the railing of the ship.

"Hang on!" Zidane shouts at me.

"Oh, I'm hanging!" I say in fear of falling. I then see that the Black Waltz makes it inside the gate as well. "Aw man, he made it, too!"

The Black Waltz comes next us saying, "I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill! I exist only to kill...!"

"I think we broke him." I say as it gets ready to charge its Thundara again. "This is it!" I say prepare for the worst. But as it charges the magic, some of the bolts hit the Black Waltz's engine!

"Ron, pull up!" I hear Zidane as I lift myself up quickly to dodge the sliding doors to exit the gate and the explosion of the Black Waltz!

'_We finally made into Lindblum territory, phew!' _I thought in sweet relief. Vivi wakes as he, Zidane and I walk inside the cockpit with Steiner and Dagger piloting the cargo ship, who knew she had so many talents!?

Zidanelooks over the engine and checks the damage the ship took in rushing South Gate.

"I think we pushed it a little too hard." He comments, then sees the rest of us slient. "Why so silent, people? We made it! Come on, cheer up!"

"South Gate was badly damaged..." Dagger broke the silence as she focuses on driving. "It was my fault, wasn't it...?"

"Don't worry about it! They'll fix it up in no time." Zidane says nonchalantly.

"You idiot!" Steiner shouts. "The cargo ship was wrecked, we lost all the cargo, and South Gate was destroyed! I can't believe I played a part in this debacle!"

"Steiner." Dagger interrupts.

"Yes, Princess!" Steiner salutes.

"I didn't mean to get you involved... But you saved us. I thank you." Dagger says easing Steiner's anger.

"Such kind words!" He says bowing to her. "I am not worthy! Well, now I've made up my mind! I vow to protect you, Princess, until we return to the castle!"

"How do you feel about that, Dagger?" Zidane asks humorously. "He'll follow you to the end of the world."

"It's okay, Zidane." She calmly says. I chuckle a bit. "What is it, Ron?" She asks me.  
"I told Steiner it was better to follow you instead of trying to drag you back home." I laughed out. Steiner just grumbled.

"Hey, I can see the main gate of Lindblum!" Dagger says. Steiner and I look to see the castle on top of a mountain.

"That's Lindblum Castle!? How gigantic...!" Steiner exclaimed.

"The city of Lindblum is inside the castle." She informs us.

"Whoa!" I shouted. "That's incredible!" Dagger giggled at my expression.

"...Everyone." We hear Vivi say. "Those...black mages and I... Are we...the same...?" He says nervously. All of us couldn't give a straight answer at that before Steiner spoke.

"I don't understand, Master Vivi. Just what seemed to be the problem...?" He asks the black mage.

"...I don't know." Vivi said.

"Master Vivi, why would those mages be the same as you?" Steiner asks. "And why would it matter if they were...?"

"You know something Steiner, you make a lot of sense now!" I praise him.

"Yeah, Rusty's right!" Zidane shouted. "You're an individual, no matter what happens, Vivi!"

"R-Right!" Vivi says, feeling a bit cheerful.

"Let's go check out the deck, Vivi!" Zidane offers.

"Why?" Vivi asks.

"You've gotta see Lindblum from above! It's the best! Look, the Falcon's Gate is right in front of us!" Zidane exclaims with Vivi going out to see the view.

'_Finally, the Black Waltz trio are dead and we make it Lindblum with Dagger.' _I thought feeling happy. _'Wonder what happens now?'_

************************************************************************************************************************

New moves:

**Ice Tomb: **Ron gathers ice in his fist and smashes down on the ground covering the enemy in icy spires. (He did this last chapter, but I forgot to set it up, sorry!)

**Electric Blades: **Ron charges lightning in his arms and extends them to make blades and slices the enemy.

****************************************************************************************************************************

Finally, we reach a new kingdom and finish another chapter! Now I'll be able to get off fighting for a while.

Next chapter: We reach Lindblum and sees some real strange things and an old friend of Zidane's. Be ready for Chapter 8: Welcome to Lindblum!

Please R&R, see ya!


	8. CH8 :Welcome to Lindblum!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Oh yeah, I have returned! Yet no one else is here to bask in the ambience of the new chapter with except the readers. Oh well, since everybody else has came in, I'll have to wait until new characters show up. So I'll thank all my loyal readers for review and telling me what they liked! I may have disappointing news….there won't be any battles on this chapter, but it'll come back full circle in the next one. Also, Aerith the Evenstar gave me an idea from a review she made in the first chapter, if you like it make sure to leave her some props as well!

Now as we all know, I don't own Final Fantasy 9, I own my SI or OC Ronald Harris. Now that this is done, let's start this chapter!

****************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 8:**

**Welcome to Lindblum!**

(Linblum Territory- Approaching Lindblum Castle)

We all watched in all as Dagger rides the cargo ship through Lindblum's Falcon's Gate. It was even bigger than South Gate, glad we didn't need any clearance. Once inside, it was like a grand sight: from outside, Lindblum seemed like the whole castle, but inside, there was a big city around us. I hoped to explore it later since we went straight into the castle's airship dock.

**************************************************************************************************************************

(Lindblum- Grand Castle)

As we all disembark the run-down cargo ship, everyone was in awe of the inside of the castle.

"Wow! This castle is huge!" Vivi exclaimed. "It's even bigger than Alexandria Castle!"

"Yeah." Zidane agreed. "They don't call it Lindblum Grand Castle to nothing."

"An indoor airship dock! This is truly amazing...!" Steiner said, impressed by the castle interior. "Even Her Majesty's Red Rose would easily fit in here."

"You could fit an entire army of airships in here!" I exclaimed, looking around castle. But out of all of us looking around, Dagger didn't look all that impressed, but see still seemed happy to be here. Zidane was the first to notice.

"...Dagger, you don't look too impressed. Have you been here before?" He asked her.

"Yes, I came here a few times when I was little..." Dagger said, and then looked down. "I haven't been here since my father passed away."

"Wow, it must have been rough." I said to her. We then saw three strangely dressed guards coming towards us. Two of them wore white hoods with bronze mouth guards, blue armor with emblems on the front, tan pants and bronze boots. The one leading them wore the same except most of the gear was sliver, possibly an elite guard. They all held spears in their right hands.

"Here comes the welcome committee." Zidane said bluntly.

"Hooray." I added also in blunt tone. The guards took notice of the airship we came in with.

"That's a really old airship." The lead guard said inspecting the cargo ship. "Who are you and what business do you have here in the Grand Castle?" He asks. Dagger steps forward and bows slightly.

"Greetings." She says, using her royal tone. "I am Princess Garnet Til Alexandros. I humbly request an audience with Regent Cid." The lead guard looked at her like she grew a second head.

"You must be kidding!" He exclaimed. "No member of the royal family, let alone a princess, would ever ride in such a shabby

airship." He then turned to the rest of us. "And look at the company you're keeping."

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" I mouthed off.

"How dare you accuse the princess of lying!?" Steiner yelled, getting in the guard's face. "The princess was forced to come here under extreme circumstances!"

"Then show me some kind of proof of your royal heritage." The guard said stepping out of Steiner's personal space.

"Very well..." Dagger says and removes the crystal pendant she wore around her neck and shows her it to the guard. The guard looks over the pendant.

"This pendant... Is it a Falcon Claw!?" He thought out loud, before looking it over again. "...No. The shape is a little different." He then turns to the other two guards. "Call Minister Artania!"

"Yes sir!" The guards say as they leave to retrieve the person in question. Steiner then looks at Zidane, narrowing his eyes.

"If you weren't such a filthy-looking oaf, they would not be suspicious of us!" He retorts.

"Hey, I'm not the idiot with the loud voice, and the dirty, rusty armor." Zidane counters.

"WHAT!!!?" Steiner bellowed and it was right in my ears too which set me off.

"SHUT UP!!!!" I shouted at knight, frightening him a bit. Just then, an elderly man in priest's robes appears in the hallway and meets the elite guard halfway.

"What is going on?" He asks the guard.

"Sir, we have unknown visitors who wish to see the regent." He informs the minister and points to Dagger. "And one of them is carrying a pendant that looks like a Falcon Claw." The minister looks at Dagger and gasps, and then looks back to the guard.

"You are dismissed. I'll talk care of this." He said.

"Yes, sir!" The guards salute then leaves us. Dagger then runs to Artania and gives a big hug which he returns.

"Uncle Artania!" She says happily as she releases the hug.

"It's good to see you, Princess." He says. "Please follow me. The regent is waiting." He then walks towards the hallway with all of us following behind. Dagger looked puzzled at Artania's comment.

"Something wrong?" I ask her, shaking her from her thoughts.

"He said my uncle was expecting me." She said. "But how?" We both started to walk down the hallway, side-by-side as the castle guards greeted us.

"Well, you did want to see him." I said.

"Yes, but I never sent any word or letter informing him of my coming arrival." She said, looking worried. We then reached the others inside of an elevator lift. The minister closes the door and it starts to ascend to a higher level.

"I wonder how many floors are in this castle." I pondered, which Artania explained.

"Lindblum Castle has three levels, all connected by this lift." He answering my thoughts and further explaining the floors. "From the base level, which lies below the Mist, you can take a trolley to the harbor and the back gate. Ships hardly arrive at the harbor anymore since travel by air has become so popular. The Mist poses great danger, so we've sealed off everything. Just above the Base Level is the Mid Level, the floor we just came from. You can ride the air cab from the Mid Level to go to town. The Upper Level contains the royal chambers and conference room. Access to that level is restricted, because the regent himself resides there."

"Hey, Dagger, what's Regent Cid like?" I asked Dagger.

"Yeah, I lived in Lindblum for a while, but I've never met him." Zidane added.

"Regent Cid is very wise." She informed us. "He always thinks ahead. He may seem a bit odd at times, but he is very dependable. He and my father were best friends..." She then had a wondering look. "...I wonder if he will listen to what I have to say..." She muttered.

"Don't worry. We're not leaving until he does." Zidane said.

"Well, we did come all this way. Might as well try to grab his attention." I added.

"We will arrive at the Upper Level shortly." Artania announced. Soon after the lift reached the upper level as we walked to the throne located up a flight of stairs.

"Please wait for us outside." Artaina said to Zidane, Vivi, and I. We all nodded as they went through the doors leading to the throne room.

"Well, nothing else left to do." Zidane shrugged as he lean against the wall next to doors.

"You'll think the Regent will listen to Dagger?" Vivi asked me and Zidane.

"Don't worry, Vivi." I said quelling his worries. "If he's really a true family member to Dagger, he'll listen."

"OG...!!! OGLOP!!!" We all jumped as we hear Steiner yelling again.

"Does he ever stop busting his vocal cords?" I wondered out loud.

"Forget it, man!" Zidane shouted at me. "The Regent could be in trouble." He dashed in with Vivi and me tailing him. We slowed down before the door ready to pounce in there but for some reason, I couldn't sense any threat. We just listened into the conversation.

"Sire!" We all heard Artania shout.

"What!?" We hear a voice full of authority shout next. It must have been the Regent due to being addressed as 'Sire.'

"Wh...!?" The next voice was Dagger's, but for some reason, she sounded confused. Zidane decided it was time we all walked in.

"Dagger, what's wrong?" Zidane asked. Why aren't you talking to--"He then turned to the throne on it. "GEEZ! That's an oglop!" Vivi then stepped in front of Zidane.

"Wow... Even the oglops are big in Lindblum." Vivi exclaimed. I was confused at everyone's behavior.

"Oglop?" I asked, and then got in front of Zidane to see what everyone else was seeing and found… "WHOA! It's a bug with a moustache!" I saw a little bug about the size of the average human baby with a large, white moustache on its face. And it was sitting on throne! I calmed down a bit. "Well, at least it's not a Carve Spider." I heard Zidane snicker and turned to him with an angry glare.

"What is the meaning of this!? How dare you greet the princess like this!?" Steiner shouted as he advanced toward the bug, with me restraining him in a full nelson. "Get that repulsive bug off the throne immediately, and call the regent!"

Artania came over to him and tried calm him down. "Please, settle down! You ARE before the regent!"

"Huh!?" I said looking at priest. Steiner used this chance to break my hold on him and shout some more.

"What!? Enough of your nonsense!" He said.

"Steiner, stand down." Dagger said, effectively getting Steiner out of his rant. I can't understand how she doesn't without wanting to throw him off a cliff. She then looks closer at the oglop. "I remember that moustache. Is that really you, Uncle Cid?"

"Yes. Greetings, all gwok." The bug answered with this strange sound in his voice. "I am Cid Fabool, Regent of Lindblum. I knew it was you--I recognized your pendant's description; it's so much like my 'Falcon Claw.' I'm delighted to see you again, Garnet. You have truly gwok become a fine lady. I, on the other hand..." Artaina came to finish his words.

"Allow me to explain." He began. "About six months ago, someone snuck into the castle and attacked the regent in his sleep. Unfortunately, we were too late... The regent had been transformed into an oglop, and his wife, Lady Hilda, was abducted."

Dagger gasped. "My goodness..."

"Whoever pulled this off had to be highly skilled, like me." Zidane said.

"Hmph! I bet it was you!" Steiner yelled. I whacked Steiner on the head with enough force to keep him awake.

"Step off, Rusty!" I said earning a glare from him.

"That's not possible." Cid interrupted.

"How can you be so sure?" Zidane asked. "Do you know who we are?"

"Of course." The regent answered. "I may be a bug gwok, but I am still the ruler of Lindblum."

"Uncle Cid, I appreciate you seeing me on such short notice." Dagger said gratefully. I desperately need to speak to you about my mother."

Regent Cid gave a small sigh. "That's what I figured. But I'm sure it can wait 'til tomorrow. Why don't you all get some rest for today?" He offered.

"Thank you." Dagger said bowing.

"It is time for lunch. Please follow me." Artaina proceeded to lead us out of the throne room.

"You guys go on ahead." Zidane cut in. "I'll grab some food outside the castle."

"Cool, I'll come with you." I said, confusing the others.

"Why?" Zidane and Dagger asked.

"Yeah, why Ron?" Vivi asked. I turned to the Regent and Artania.

"Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the offer." I said. "But I need to get out more and staying cooped in a castle, just won't do."

"Okay, let's go!" Zidane said.

"Have fun, you guys!" I said following Zidane. We took the lift down to the mid level and reached the air cab docks where the attendant was waiting.

"Good day, gentleman!" He greeted. "Where to?"

"We'll head to the Industrial Disrtict." Zidane said.

"Alright, please step inside." The attendant said. We entered the cab and sat down. The cab suddenly started and zoomed through the area. Before we knew it, we were in the district in question. We stepped out of the cab and walked towards the exit of the station and looked around and stretched our arms.

"That was fast!" I said.

"Yeah, you'll get used to it." Zidane chuckled. "Come on, the café is this way." We walked up some stairs and found ourselves in front of a place called the Dark Café.

"Hey, Zidane why did you want to leave out of there so quickly?" I asked him.

"I can't stand the food at the castle. It's way too high-class for my tastes." He answered. "How can anyone get full on that stuff?" I shrugged my shoulders as he turned around. "The cheap food here is a lot better." He saw the special board. "Today's special is... Soup du Silence. Not bad." He inside with me following. The place inside looks like the pubs you see in TV shows, a bar with stools, small tables around and somewhat dim lighting.

"Yo, Pops. I'll have two of the stupid special." Zidane said to the bartender.

'_Stupid?' _I thought.

"Who said that!?" The bartender asked and turned around. "Zidane... I figured it was you."

"How've you been?" Zidane asked.

"Alright, I guess...who's your friend?" The bartender asked.

"Oh, this is Ron." Zidane introduced me. "Ron, this is Bobo."

"Pleasure." I said extended my hand to him which he shook.

"Hi." He greeted. "Have a seat, boys. Your soup'll be ready in a minute."

"Do you two mind? You're standing in everyone's way." We turned to see a waitress with long, brown hair in a ponytail, wearing a brown dress, showing off her shoulders.

"Wow..." Was me and Zidane's response. No doubt she was hot, but I'm a little out of her league despite the new look my body has. The waitress then turned to me and develops a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Hi there, handsome." She said in a sultry tone. I looked bewildered and stared looking around me to see if she saw someone. She turned me back around to face her again. "No, I said hi to you. I'm Lilian."

"Uh…R-Ron.." I stuttered. I couldn't believe how I was acting; I've talked to many pretty girls one-on-one, now I'm nervous around this one.

"Would you like a drink?" She said.

"Um, a lemonade, please." I said. "Trying to stay away from alcohol, and stay healthy." Lilian then starts to eye me like a piece of meat.

"I bet you are." She said winking, causing me to blush. "Be right back." She walks away adding some sway in her hips. I then feel an elbow nudging me in the side, Zidane's elbow.

"Sounds like she sweet on you, you sly dog." He said grinning at me.

"H-Hey, hey!" I said, looking embarrassed. "It's nothing like that!"

"Sure it is." He said. "Wait here." Zidane walks over to Lilian, who's finished taking another order. "Hey."

"Hmm, you want a drink?" She asks without the sultry tone. I just go over to the bar and sit down.

"How about you and that guy Ron go out for a cruise on an airship?" Zidane says to the waitress. My eyes suddenly bug out; he's trying to set me up on a date!

"Really!? An airship!? With Ron!?" She exclaims. I slap my hand on my forehead and groan.

"Someone just kill me now." I mutter to my self.

"Woman trouble?" I hear a soft woman's voice to the left of me.

"Big time." I say. "Huh?" I turn in the direction the voice and see a female rat in a worn down red coat with an emblem in front, but not Lindblum's. She also wore a matching red hat over her sliver hair that also covered her eyes, and brown pants and boots.

"He's still a loud mouth." She mutters, and then looks to me. "Watch this." She shouts the next sentence so Zidane could hear it. "Hey, monkey-tail, you're disturbing the other customers."

"What the—" Zidane turned around to see the woman next to me and looks at her tail that has a yellow ribbon over it. "You've got a tail, too, rat-face!" He yelled back.

"Rat-face...After I finish my drink, I'm gonna kick your butt." She said bluntly, finishing her glass. Zidane was about get ready rumble as he began to walk over to bar.

"Hey, Zidane, take it outside." Bobo warned. The rat woman then stepped out of her stool and faced Zidane, which shocked him.

"Long time, Zidane." The rat woman greeted him.

Zidane shook of the stupor he was in and greeted her. "Hey! What's up!?" He then put on a thinking look. "Wait a minute..."

"You forgot my name?" The rat woman said, looking slightly angry at the tailed bandit.

"No, I remember. You're Helga, right?" He asked.

"Wrong."

"...Christine?"

"No!"

Zidane then put on a playful look. "...Oh yeah! You used to live next door to me. How's it going...Ratchel? Man, you've really gotten...big." He said while smirking.

"You nasty little--" The rat woman was about to blow her stack before Zidane cut in.

"Come on. I'm just kiddin'. You know I never forget a pretty girl's name." He said raising his hands in defense.

'_He really must think he's player.' _I thought. _'First he tries set me up with a woman I hardly met, now he talks to a woman that knows him, but comes up with multiple names for her. That last name plus that comment was hitting below the belt.'_

"So, how've you been, Freya?" He asks while pulling up the stool next to me and sits down.

"...Same old Zidane." Freya replies. "But you've changed a bit."

"How so?" He asks raising an eyebrow.

Lilian comes by with the drinks for me and Freya, giving me another wink as she passes by. Freya takes notice.

"Mostly you try to get all girls, now try to set up you friend here?" She explains.

"Speaking of which, why'd you do that, ya maniac!?" I asked him. "If I wanted a date, I would've asked for it!"

"Come on man!" He counters. "I saw you staring at her, you thought she was hot, too!"

"Yeah, but.." I trail off drinking my lemonade. Freya chuckles a bit at our argument.

"Poor guy, anyway what's your name?" She asks.

"Ronald Harris, but just Ron will do." I introduced.

"Freya Crescent." We shake hands and go back to our drinks.

"So, Freya how long has it been since we've seen each other?" Zidane asks catching up.

"About 3 years." She answered.

"Hey, did you ever find out anything about your boyfriend?" He asks again.

"No..." Freya sounded hurt at that; she must really love this person.

"So... What brings you to Lindblum?" I ask, getting away from the touchy subject.

"The Festival of the Hunt. What else? It's a good opportunity to test my skills." She says like it was the obvious answer possible.

"Oh... Well, I'm sure you'll find him someday." Zidane gets back in.

"Aren't you participating in the hunt?" She asks Zidane.

"...Nah. I think I'll pass." Zidane says, passively.

"Lazy bum." Freya mutters. I chuckle at the comment, and then she turns to me. "How about you, Ron?"

I think for a minute before answering. "You know why not?" I answer her.

"Yeah man, you should definitely sign up!" Zidane encouraged and turned to Freya. "This guy will give you a run for your money; he won't even need weapons to rack up the reward."

"Is that so?" Freya said in an interesting tone.

"Yup, nothing but intelligence, agility and my fists here." I replied patting my arms.

"I'll hold you to that." She replied look at my hands. "You may want to get some knew knuckle guards though."

I look at them and see that they are worn out from all the tough fights. "Good point, know any good shops?" I ask.

"There's shops in the business district, plus a synthesis shop." She informs me.

"Great, thanks." I said finishing my drink and receiving my soup and Zidane's.

"...Are you ever gonna go back home, Freya?" Zidane says before taking in some of the soup in his mouth.

"I have no reason to return to Burmecia." She says. "There is nothing there for me anymore."

We spend the rest of our time eating and talking. Afterwards, we pay our bills and part ways, not before Lilian gives me a special goodbye kiss on the cheek, making me blush hard and causing Zidane to crack up. We took the air cab back to the castle to meet up with Vivi who also finished dinner. He told us that Dagger was in her meeting with the Regent and would be staying the night. We also looked to a sign up sheet for the Festival of the Hunt; we already saw Freya's name on their and soon added ours, though for some reason Zidane took longer than normal. Then, Zidane, Vivi and I took the air cab to the Business District and paid for a room in the local inn. We all said our good nights and went to sleep.

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[The next day.]

I woke up out of my bed and started to do my morning rituals: stretches, exercises and finally a good long shower! Being out on the road had me smelling worse than a pen full of dirty pigs. I put on the new clothes I bought back in Dali and wnt back into my room where Zidane and Vivi greeted me.

"Good morning, Ron. Good morning Zidane." Vivi greeted.

"You two are up early." Zidane took notice.

"I thought I get an early start on things." I said.

"Lindblum is a really busy place." Vivi said. "I've never seen this many people before. I wonder where people go when they wanna be alone..."

I chuckle at Vivi's thoughts; you really forget to look past the Black Magic skills and see a little kid, curious about the world around him.

"Cities this big are always full of people, Vivi." I tell him.

"He's right; Lindblum has always been like this. People come here from all over the world. Some of them come here to become airship engineers, sculptors, actors..." Zidane adds.

"Wow..." Vivi thought, making chuckle again.

"I don't even remember why I came here my first time." Zidane continues. "Before I knew it, I was living here with my Tantalus brothers."

"Do they still live here?" Vivi asked.

"Yeah. Our hideout is in the Theater District." Zidane said. "I'm gonna go there right now. Do you guys wanna come along?"

"Um, that's okay. I'm gonna go look around town." Vivi said.

"Ditto." I add in.

"Okay. Then I'll give you guys a little tour." Zidane offered.

"...No, that's okay. I can go by myself." Vivi said walking away.

"Yeah, I'll let my feet take me on the tour." I add in.

"Ohhh...okay... Go find yourself a cute girl Vivi, alright?" Zidane said. "No doubt Ron's got himself some ladies chasing him down."

"That's it; I thought I told to drop it last night!" I said lunging at him. But he dodges by flipping over me and running away, laughing all the way out the inn as I chased him to the air cab station across the street. "You better run!" I added.

I then walk up the street, passing the various buildings that were around. Some were actually tall, three-story houses or some meeting places. I turned to corner and found the market square, street vendors were lined selling various foods and items. One in particular caught my eye, mainly seeing a familiar face there, Steiner.

"Hey there, Steiner!" I told the rusty armored knight. I saw him eating something small and green. "What'cha up to?"

"Oh, good morning, Ron." Steiner greeted. "You have got to try these gyhsal pickles, they are fantastic!" Steiner was really getting into collecting some of the pickles; they were about 30 or 40 of them in a sack he had!

"He's right, step right up young man and try one for free!" An elderly lady said, possibly the pickle vendor. She wore a orange dress with a tan apron, plus a orange bandana on her head.

"Sure why not?" I said. I pick one up and as soon as it reached near my face, the smell of the pickle got into my nose and it was foul! "Whoa, are these supposed to smell like that?" I asked the old woman.

"Yes, the worse they smell, the better they taste!" She replied.

"Well, you got a tasty one!" I said, not entirely sure about it. I finally got to biting and tasting it. And sure enough, I finished the entire thing in two more bites! "These are good! How much?"

"They are 75 gil a piece!" She said, excited she was making another sale.

"I'll take 7 since Mr. Knight over here may possibly want entire cart." I said jokingly as I see Steiner eating away at his stash of pickles.

"525 gil, please." The vendor said. I pulled out the exact amount and handed it to her. She then gave me a small sack of the seven pickles I bought. "Thank you for your patronage, sir!"

"Hey thank you for the snack!" I said raising the sack and walked off further into the market square. At the end were the shops that Freya pointed out to me yesterday. I checked out the synthesis shop first. It was like an old-fashioned blacksmith shop; a furnace was in the back of the place, tools were up against the wall and the lights were out.

"Hello there, how may I help you sir?" I see the clerk greet me, he wore a white shirt with blue overalls. He had blond hair under a blue hat. Plus, I noticed he had a muscular physique; no doubt from all of that work he's done making weapons and armory.

"Hi, I was wondering do you make any knuckle weapons?" I asked showing my bronze knuckles.

"Yeah, we do!" He said. "We actually have made a special weapon called Mythril Trench Knuckles, made from mythril daggers and those bronze knuckles you got there." I was excited to hear about that so I made sure to be prepared.

"I'll be back with items!" I said. I remember reading a story about them; armies use them for close-quarter fighting, right up my alley. Not only they had knuckles guards with four sharp points, it had a knife on the end of it. I ran to the weapons shop and bought a mythril dagger for about 700 gil, and then ran back to the synthesis shop.

"I'm back!" I said holding up the bronze knuckles and mythil daggers and set them on the counter.

"Great all I need is 1800 gil to cover the base." The synthesis maker said. I gave him the amount asked for. "It'll be awhile, so walk around a bit before coming back."

"Cool." I walked out of the shop and headed for the item shop. It seemed like a normal store aside from the various potions and antidotes for ailments, they had bread and juices, too.

"Wow, this nut smells really good. I think I'll buy one..." I heard a familiar voice from behind a food shelf. I walked over to the other side to find……

"Vivi!" The little black mage turned around and saw me waving.

"Hi, Ron." He said walking over to me. "What's up?"

"Oh I'm buying some items for the Festival of the Hunt later on." I explained.

"Wow, there's gonna be a festival!" Vivi jumped up, happily.

"Uh, yeah?" I said not entirely sure if he knows that the Festival is about fighting monsters.

"I've always wanted to see one of those, let's go!" He said running to counter. I walked after him to see a red-headed woman in a white dress manning the register.

"Hi. I wanna buy this." Vivi said to the clerk, holding a small nut.

"Oh, are you friends with the moogles?" The clerk asked.

"Huh?" Vivi asked.

"That item is called a Kupo Nut." She explained. "Kupo Nuts are moogles' favorite food."

"Oh. I didn't know that." He said.

"I think that's the last one... Go ahead, honey. It's on me." She said sweetly.

"Really!? Thank you!" Vivi thanked the woman. "Um, what is this Festival of the Hunt like?"

"Well, we let a bunch of animals loose and..." She tried to explain but Vivi cut her off.

"It sounds like fun! Thank you!" He said as he ran out the door.

"Vivi!" I shouted trying to stop him, but was too late. I just paid for my items and decided to meet up with him later.

"Thank you sir!"She said to me, but then she looked worried. "I don't think that little guy will like the festival. I mean, what's so fun about fighting savage beasts...?" She gasped at what she just said. "Wait a minute! Did I say 'animals' again!?"

"Yes, you did." I said."Don't worry, I'll tell him."

"Thanks, I don't want the little guy getting hurt." She said in a worried tone. I nodded and walked out the door. As soon as I did, I ran over to the synthesis shop and picked up my new weapon. It was a bluish-silver color and the shape was just as I described it earlier, with this I'll have an edge in the hunt. I thanked the maker again before leaving. I was about to head over to the air cab when suddenly….

"Ron!" I heard Vivi run towards me.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Look!" He pointed to a shady looking man. He wore an all black outfit and carried a wad of cash in his right hand.

"I see him." I said. "He looks shifty, but what about him?"

"He's the guy who sold me that fake ticket!" He exclaimed. I widen my eyes at the words that came from his mouth.

"That's him!?" I asked him. He nodded. My mind quickly formed a plan on how to get Vivi's money back. "Follow me, Vivi." I said calmly.

"What are you doing?" He asked carefully as we walked to the man.

"Just stay behind and wait 'til I say when, okay?" I tell him. He nods. We soon reached the shady person. "Hi there, good sir."

"Hello, I have a sweet deal for you!" He said in a scratchy voice, he pulled a crystal that had no shine to it. "This crystal will help you grant any wish you want."

'_Who does he think he's kidding?' _I thought. _'I'll play along before dropping the bomb on 'em.' _"Wow, really!" I said in fake excitement.

"Sure, all for just 10,000 gil!" He said grinning. "And just think; you'll get more money but just wishing on this crystal!"

"Hmm, I really don't need it.." I said, playing around with the guy, "..But my friend might." I wave my hand to signal Vivi to come in front of me.

"Hi!" Vivi said. I could feel the warning sign in that guy's head go off as he stared at Vivi then at me.

"OH NO!!!!" He shouted as he tried to run but I cut him off and held him by his ankles. "PLEASE!! Don't hurt me!? I didn't know the kid had a bodyguard!!"

"Now you do." I said shaking him a bit. "Now, you wanna give Vivi a nice refund from the ticket you swindled to him or do you wanna have a very nice, but painful talk in that alley over there."

"All right! All right! Here!" He dropped 5,000 gil on the floor which Vivi collected. I then flipped him right side up and held him by the collar of his shirt.

"Now, you be a good little boy and play nice from now on, okay?" I asked, menacingly. He nodded in a rapid place. "And if you try something like this again, you'll find yourself in a waking, painful nightmare." I placed my trench knife to his face to drive the point. I let go of him. "Now, RUN!" The shady guy ran off crying.

"Thank you, Ron!" He said hugging me. "That was so cool!"

"Hey, I could've let you torch 'em!" I joked which we both had a laugh as we headed to the air cab and went to the castle. As we reached the front gate, a guard stepped. "This way, the Festival of the Hunt is about to start."

Vivi jumped for joy as we were led to the guest room where Steiner, Dagger and Freya were waiting.

"Hey guys!" I greeted them. They all gave they initial greeting to me and Vivi as we sat down.

"You ready to fight?" Freya asked me.

"You know it!" I said, raising my right fist. Freya took notice.

"You got some new weapons for those hands, this will be challenging." She pondered. Vivi then looked scared.

"You have to fight!?' He said.

"Oh yeah." I said, forgetting to explain to Vivi about the festival. "You see the Festival of the Hunt is a….." But I was cut off by another voice…

"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late." Zidane said, running in.

"Alright, let's begin." The guard said as he read a paper:

= Festival of the Hunt =

Hunters, on your mark! Ferocious beasts swarm about the

castle town! The bigger the catch, the higher the score!

The time limit is 40 minutes. Use air cabs to go to other

districts. Once you lose in a battle, you will be forced to

retire. The winner will be crowned Master Hunter and

receive the hunter's reward.

"What do you wish for your hunter's reward?" The guard asked us.

"I'll go with Gil all the way!" Zidane shouted proudly.

"Me too!" I said.

"I'll take an Add-on." Freya said calmly.

"And you, Mr. Vivi?" The guard asked the black mage.

"WHAT!? I never signed up!" He protested.

"Huh?" I said confused at the proclamation. "How'd he get into the competition, if he never signed up!?"

"I thought you would do pretty well, so I signed you up." Zidane said to Vivi. "Don't worry. With your black magic, it'll be a piece of cake."

"I...I don't know..." Vivi said, getting frightened.

"That was very inconsiderate of you, Zidane." Freya scolded.

"Yeah man, give him a break!" I added in. Of course, Zidane just ignored us.

"Oh!" He suddenly said then whispered something to Vivi, shocking him.

"Me and the princess!?" Vivi blurted out, for everyone to hear.

"SHHH! Keep it down!" Zidane whispered again.

"What was that!?" Steiner shouted. "You just mentioned the princess. What evil deeds are you plotting now!?"

"It's nothing, right, Vivi?" Zidane asked.

"Y-Yeah." Vivi said.

"So, what would you like for your reward?" The guard asked.

"Oh, um... I'll take a Card." Vivi told him.

"Okay. 2 Gils, an Add-on, and...a Card. The festival will begin shortly. You all have different starting points. Hunter Zidane will start in the Theater District, Hunters Freya and Ron will start in the Industrial District, and Hunter Vivi will start in the Business District. As soon as the air cabs reach your starting points, begin the hunt!"

Everyone heads for the air cabs to the areas assigned to them. Me and Freya jump on the one leading to the Industrial District.

"Let's see how strong you really are, Ron." Freya challenged.

"Oh, you'll see!" I said eager to start the competition.

The air cab reached its destination and Freya and I dashed out, ready to hunt…..

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Nice place for a cliffhanger, wouldn't you say? Please Rate and Review!

Next Chapter: The Festival of the Hunt! Don't choke now!


	9. CH9: Festival of the Hunt!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Well, I've been gone long enough.

**Freya: **You certainly have; your readers have been wondering what happened with you.

**Duelist of Dawn:** Hey! Don't blame me, blame the Document Manager for not letting me login or review any stories in a while!

**Freya: **That's true; some of your favorite stories probably had the same problem.

**Duelist of Dawn: **See! I could be wondering about the same thing but I keep a leveled head and just re-read stories or look at other ones that catch my interest.

**Freya: **And in that time, you could be setting up new chapters!

**Duelist of Dawn: **(sweatdrops and chuckles nervously) Oh yeah.

**Freya: **Lazy bum.

**Duelist of Dawn:** Whatever, let's get on with the festivities: first up for all of you Final Fantasy VIII fans or someone who needs a good story from the category, check out **The Lionheart Revised** by Katherine the Black Rose. Its action packed, funny and some romance involved and a kick-ass lady OC.

**Freya: **I never pictured you the romantic type.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Blame the game creators for involving love in their story plots. Also special shout outs to my reviewers out there, thanks for sticking with me and also glad that ATE liked the use of her thoughts on the first chapter; never thought I get this good, be sure to tell your peeps about this and see if they like it!

**Freya: **Also, Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy 9 or any music used in the story. Now, start the chapter so I can win the Festival of the Hunt.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Wow, you're amped up! Well, can't deny a lady what see wants (unless it's something illegal) Start the chapter!

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**Chapter 9**

**Welcome to Linblum! Part 2: The Festival of the Hunt**

(Play Hunter's Chance from Final Fantasy 9)

(Lindblum-Industrial District) (Time set: 40 minutes)

The Festival of the Hunt; a great way to kill some time and I can battle without any actual threats. I mean, the monsters here are child's play now since I've gotten better in my skills and with my new trench knives; I give any monster that crosses me a clean sweep! Freya and I reach the Industrial District to start our part in the Festival. We rush up the stairs leading into the square where right now no people would dare to be walking around here unless they want to be beef jerky to a pack of monsters. But for some reason, it's even void of monsters around here…

"You think the beasties gave us the slip?" I asked Freya, who was walking beside me.

"No; if I know one thing, since those monsters love to be in groups, they'll wait to ambush us." She says, while pulling out her weapon of choice: a javelin spear.

"Nice spear." I say.

"Thanks. We Burmecian Dragon Knights favor spears mostly since we pride ourselves in slaying dragons quite swiftly." She responds. I can take her word for it; even though the knights I read about use the ol' 'shield and sword' routine, I notice they have a very difficult time in doing so, or end up dead. Using spears gives you range advantage since you attack while in a good distance away from the enemy and defend if they somehow get inside your vantage point. Then, I hear some footsteps approaching. We both press our backs together ready to see all angles; we may be rivals during the competition, but neither one of us wants the other one dead.

"You feel that?" Freya whispers.

"Yeah. We're surrounded." I whisper back.

*AWWOOOO!!!!*

After the howl, about 12 Fangs come up out of their hiding places and surround us in a wide circle, growling menacingly. None of them are about to foresee the deaths that are about to come to them.

"Hey, six for you, six for me?" I say to Freya in playful tone.

"Done." She simply says before jumping towards three of them and slices them down one shot. That action set the other nine attacking, trying to bite us. I meet one head on before giving it an uppercut and thanks to my new weapons on my fists, slicing him down the middle. I then spin around with my arms out cutting up two more Fangs who were trying to jump at my blind spots. After that, the three remaining Fangs surrounded me in a triangular formation, ready for my next move. Thinking of what to do next, I stare down the one in front of me while flexing my hands on the grips of my weapons. I just dropped my hands down which caused of them to try and pile on me, but I all did was duck and let all three of them knock heads which let me crush all of them by punching the two on the side and letting me use their bodies crushing the one in the middle, killing them all.

"Paydirt." I say with a grin and then turn to Freya who is finished having her fun.

"You're really creative in your attacks, impressive." She says. "It'll be a grand victory to best you in the Hunt."

"Well, you better get to bagging those beasts." I say. "I won't have a problem with it." We then parted ways, though Freya's exit was rooftop hopping. "Showoff."

I just took the conventional way: taking the stairs. As I ran up the stairs, I took down a Mu along way without slowing down, if this is how the monsters are, anybody could have a chance of winning this. At the top of the stairs, I ran into a flock of blue birds called Trick Sparrows.

"Great, flying monsters." I said staring them down. "Maybe this will be tougher than I thought."

As I got ready to fight, the sparrows took flight. I was able to see how many were around me: a shocking twenty-five! Man, it was like what Freya said earlier: the monsters chosen to be the game in the contest love to be in groups, big ones to be accurate. But at least I had at least two aces-in-the-holes for flying enemies. As soon as one of the Trick Sparrows dived down to lead the others into the fray. I charged up energy in my arms and produce the same technique I used on the Black Waltz No.3, may he rot in Hell with other Waltzes.

"Thunder Blades!" My arms became blades again but different. The energy around my trench knives caused them to be more like pendulum scythes instead of blades. "Oh well, I'm not changing the name!" I yelled, charging against the sparrows. I started swing my arms so I could give the birds a giant sized shock treatment, catching about five of them in the contact and seven more due to the electricity clinging to the ones nearby and frying them like chickens. That left thirteen more to deal with. I don't believe in that superstitious stuff, but to anyone else would probably be wetting their pants right now, because while the twelve sparrows I took were dead, the others swooped in and did this spear pecking against my limbs, stopping my blade attack.

"Dammit!" I shouted as the attacks hit home. I had no time to heal up with some potions I took with me so I did a rolling dodge to escape the next assault. "Gotta think of something!" I thought out loud then in my mind. _'I need some speed! They know I need time for the Thunder Blades so they'll swoop in again as soon as I charge up and the Ariel Drive will leave me a sitting duck in the air, oh damn!' _I was interrupted by another attack from the sparrows; I also noticed they would not try to split up unless their plan is to pick at my dead body like vultures if I slip up. Suddenly, my feet were glowing yellow and in a flash I dodge the next attack without much effort. "Sonic Flash!" And the next thing I know I'm sitting on a nearby box a second later.

"How'd I get here that quick?" I questioned as I looked around; and found five more Trick Sparrows dead on the ground. "On second thought, I won't complain!" I said in excitement; I must've have hit them in the midst of that ability. The eight remain Trick Sparrows looked bewildered at the display and I use that chance to strike them down using the Sonic Flash ability, but it left me tired. "Phew! Gotta use that at a critical moment, next time!" I said catching my breath and chugging down a couple of potions which closed up the wounds those birds left on me. I ran on further into the district and found that familiar café I was at the other day, but I couldn't stop as the time was still ticking as about a half an hour was left…..

*EEEEEEKKKK!!!!*

…..Or help out some who's in trouble in there!

I rushed into the café to find a lone Fang cornering a frightened woman behind the bar. And it wasn't just any woman….

"Help me, please!!!" It was that waitress Lilian! I was able to pounce on the Fang and punched it away from her. "Oh, thank you! Thank you!" She immediately glomped on me, crushing me in a hug.

"Need…..air…." I gasped out, until she lets me go, feeling embarrassed.

"Oops, sorry!" She says, sheepishly. I start to breathe in and out, getting back air in my lungs.

"It's okay, but listen you need to get away from here in case any monsters show up again." I told her.

"I was about to go into an underground shelter we use in case of the Hunt." Lilian informs me.

"Good, I hate to see someone get killed in this thing, even if it is tradition in this place." I say. "Gotta go, be safe!" I went to the entrance of the pub to leave until Lilian stopped me again.

"Wait a sec.." She then plants a kiss on my cheek again, causing me to blush all the same. "Good luck!" I nod, and ran out.

'_Okay, this place seems clean enough and with everyone out of harm's way, it's time to move on!" _I thought running to the air cab station. As soon as I make it, I hop into the cab and yell out my next destination. "Theater District!" The attendant nods and gives the signal for the drive to head out.

**************************************************************************************************************************

(Theater District) (Time left 27 min)

The air cab pulls up to the station and I jump out to the window and rush out the station. Outside, the place seems quiet but I still sense some hostile auras around so I check out the area and see a lone Mu in the corner and quickly kill it before it has the chance to notice me. Then I find a clock tower near a studio and run in. Inside were bunch of treasure chests but were already emptied out, two set of bunk beds against the walls and a bell in the middle that triggers whenever the clock strikes certain times.

"Hmm, Zidane said he and the Tantalus gang had a hideout in this district. I guess this is it." I said looking around. "Well, gotta keep moving and keep fighting." As I turn to leave, I am stopped by 3 Mus blocking the doorway. I sigh as I get my fists up ready to go. The Mus on the side advance towards me and tries to slap me with their tails but I grab them both, slam them together and throw them to the waiting Mu who dodges them with ease. It then retaliates by throwing a stone at my forehead leaving me dazed for a few seconds.

"Damn, that hurts!" I yell while holding my head and check it for bleeding. Thankfully, I'm not but this I direct my anger at the Mu. "Where in the blue Hell you get a stone, you demented squirrel!?" I yell in pain. My answer was another stone to the face. "OWW! That's it!" I rush at the Mus trying to take it down from the legs but it jumps and quickly I cut it down with an uppercut. The other two Mus started throwing those stone which I dodge and knock them back, effectively knocking them out. I then quickly slam my fists on their backs and slice them as I ran out of the hideout.

Next, I slide down the railing of the stairs down to the local theater and find no sign of people or monsters around.

"Well coming down here was bust." I thought to myself, feeling disappointed. "Guess I'll head on to the Business District and…"

"HELP!!" I was cut off by a male theater personnel running out of the building.

"What's wrong?" I ask the guy.

"A monster's coming!" He says, fear evident in his voice. I hear the monster growling and quickly grab the man and pull at the edge of the door. "Wha.?"

"Shh!" I shush him as I hear the monster coming. As soon as I hear it running towards the entrance and when I saw the monster, I gave it a kick under the chin followed by a swift punch to the face. I ran to the body and found it was a Fang.

"Thank you, sir!" The attendant said gratefully and ran away to safer ground.

"Well, nothing left to do but get to the Business District!" I say running up the stairs, past the hideout and into the air cab yelling out "Business District!"

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(Business District) (Time left 15 min)

"Attention hunters, there are fifteen minutes left in the Festival of the Hunt!" I hear Artania say over a loudspeaker.

"Let's see if I can grab more points before the time runs out." I say as I walk out of the station. Then in front me…..

*CLANK!!*

…..was I giant axe blocking me.

"Hold on there, handsome!" A feminine and commanding voice says. I look away from the giant axe to see the person holding it: A black woman wearing a circlet with a green plant in it, a short shirt that shows off her midriff and cleavage, yellow collar and forearm guards that shows off her elbow, black shorts with a brown and orange fur covering around her hips.

"Mind telling me why you're blocking my way?" I ask politely. She picks up her axe with one hand and hoists it over her shoulders without difficulty. _'Wow, she must be very strong. That axe seems to weigh nearly 200 pounds!' _

"I came to see who's left in the competition, but I am very much liking what I see here!" She says checking me out.

"Really?" I ask having a slight blush. I then feel her arms around my shoulders and hear her breathing.

"Really." She whispers in my ear making me blush an even redder color. "I can see you're a strong guy and I like strong guys." She adds in a sultry tone.

'_Man, I can't believe I'm getting this much attention!' _I thought feeling my body temperature rise up a few degrees and my heart beat faster. _'Wow, do I really like her attention?'_

"Well, if this contest let other people fight each other; I would _love_ see how good you really are, Ron." She says coming around to face me. "But we can't."

I shake myself out of the daze she put me in and ask her. "You know my name?"

"Of course, a man who fights with fists or knuckle braces; you fit that description." She tells me. "Of course, you know me, don't you?"

I rack my brain for the list of names on the sign up sheet and bring up what I can remember about the game. Then it hits me….

"You're Lani right, a bounty hunter?" I ask her.

"Well, you do know me?" She asks like she knew I was going to answer right. "I…."

"10 minutes left in the Hunt, I repeat 10 minutes left in the hunt!" The loudspeakers sound over the district.

"Looks like we'll have to cut our date a little short see ya later, big boy!" She adds blowing a kiss and getting on the air cab. I sigh heavily at what just happened with me and run down streets of the district.

"Man, I can't believe at what just happened to me!" I said looking around for more monsters, but nothing comes up. "Oh well, gotta stay focused for now."

*BRROORRR!!!*

"I found some action!" I yell as I run to the market square to follow the roar of maybe a huge monster. As I run, I find Zidane running beside me.

"Hey, Ron you still in this?" He says.

"I'm here ain't I?" I answer back. We reach the square to find two kids about to be harassed by a huge brown monster.

"Zidane, help us!" They cry out. As we get ready to battle, I ask Zidane a question.

"You know those kids?" I ask.

"Yeah, Baku babysits them in while their parents work." Zidane answers.

"Well, we need to get this dude's attention." I say. "Any thoughts?"

"Yeah." He says then shouts to the monster. "Hey ugly! Over here!" The monster turns around so we see the front of it. It looks like a huge brown boar with twin tusks on the chin, horns out of its nose and ears, green hair on its mane and back.

"I think ugly is an understatement here, especially for a Zaghnol." I say looking up to the big monster. "But we can take him."

"No joke, look at this!" I look at Zidane's new weapon; a green double-bladed sword with the handle in the middle of the blades. He spins it around before holding it in fighting stance.

"What the Hell?" I say, looking at the blade. "I thought daggers were your thing."

"They are, I combine two of these Mage Masher daggers to make this blade, The Ogre!" He informed me.

"I know you had fun with that!" I said, getting into my stance.

"I could say the same for you!" Zidane countered, looking at my trench knives. "All right, let's take him!" I nod.

"Need some assistance?" We turn to see Freya hop over to us.

"Hey, the more the merrier!" I say.

"Yeah, sure but I'm the one who finishes him; I got a date with Dagger on the line!" Zidane shouts.

"Whatever." Freya and I say at the same time.

'_If this thing comes at me, I'll kill it regardless of Zidane's date.' _I thought. _'Serves him right for trying to set me up on an unexpected date.'_

(End Hunter's Chance, Play Boss theme of Final Fantasy 9)

The Zaghnol strikes first trying to ram us with the tusks, but we all evade the charge; Zidane and Freya jump to the side while I hop on his face and give him a hard head-butt, which makes it stumble back a few steps, I like my strength!

"Guys, hit him now!" I yell as I back flip off the monsters face, and they didn't to be told twice. The thing about big and bulky beasts like the Zaghnol, their blind/weak spots are always the biggest part of them: their sides. Zidane cut the right side with a spinning slash while Freya stabbed the left side with point of her spear. But instead of finishing it, we pissed it off. The Zaghnol does side kick with its hind legs to Freya, knocking her into some carts and hits Zidane with the side of its tusks knocking him near some of the stores. Then, it turns its attention to me and goes to try to ram me again, but I stand my ground and grab hold of the tusks with both hands and push against the weight.

"Come on, move!" I try to motivate myself as I and the monster were still trying to get the best of each other. "I got it!" My mind racks up a quick thought as I lift up the tusks and let go causing the Zaghnol to charge ahead and let me lift it up by the underbelly.

"Wow! Look at that guy!"

"He's really strong to pick up a big monster like that!"

The kids who being cornered by the Zaghnol were in awe of how easily I was lifting the big thing up, I was surprised that my strength was holding up like this, but now I can't think, gotta act!

"If you think that's great, watch this!" I yell to kids, waiting for my next move. I first lift the monster off my hands, putting it in the air. I figure I use a move I've always wanted a pull and now I have the stamina to pull it off! My fists glow slight read and I start my technique with an uppercut, slicing it a bit followed by a double kick launching it a few feet in the air before jumping after it. I grabbed by the Zaghnol tusks again and shouted "Grand Power Bomb!" and slammed it on ground away from the children and landing on the monster's body.

"Dude!" I hear Zidane shouted running over to me and grabbing me by the shirt. "I told you not to kill him!"

"Hey, the thing attacked me, what was I supposed to do, lie down and die!?" I countered, getting in his face.

"Sound like a plan!" Zidane shouted as he readied his blade, but the hostility was interrupted by Freya who got out the pile of carts she landed in.

"Zidane! Ron! Move!" She shouted but before we could move, lightning shot up from the Zaghnol's body and shocked me and Zidane right off.

"Oh….man,...I feel like I was attached to a lightning rod." I groaned out still smarting from the shock.

"You okay?" Freya asked helping me up.

"Yeah." I said as I got up. We both see the Zaghnol get up, but it looked liked it was machine shorting out with all the electricity covering its body.

"It used Electrocute to charge its body with Thunder magic, giving us the shock treatment." Zidane said running over to me and Freya. "Anybody got a plan?"

"I have one." Freya said, whispering to the both of us. "If we divide and attack like last time, it won't focus any of its attacks like last time."

"I'll still land the finishing blow right?" Zidane said desperately. Freya and I sighed at Zidane.

"Fine." We both said. Freya and Zidane got to the sides of the Zaghnol again, while I stayed in front of it, waiting patiently for the monster's next move. "Hello Beastie." I mocked the giant Zaghnol. The monster once again charged up lightning and threw it at me.

"Now!" I shouted as I dodged the shot and gave it a kick to the face, followed by Freya doing a jump spear assault on the back and Zidane threw the double blade at the monster's eye, letting the monster drop dead.

(End music)

"Oh yeah!" Zidane shouted grabbing his weapon from the dead monster. While he was busing gloating over his 'victory' , Freya and I checked on the kids and made sure they weren't hurt.

*GONG!*

"Time has expired! The Festival of the Hunt is over! We will now announce our top hunters!" Artania shouted over the intercom. "In third place with 250 points, Vivi!" The crowd over looking the competition roared in applause.

"Wow! Vivi did alright for himself!" I said in amazement. Zidane just slapped me on the back.

"See, I told ya; nothing to worry about!" Zidane said in an overexcited voice.

"Tied for second place with 290 points, Freya and Ronald!" The crowd shouts again, with me and Freya waving to the crowd.

"And in first place with 330 points, Zidane, our grand winner!" Zidane was soaking up all of the attention as the crowd started chanting his name.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(10 minutes later in the Regent's room)

Vivi, Freya, Zidane and I met up in the Grand Castle greeted by Steiner, Dagger, Artania and Regent Cid. A victory ceremony was held in the throne room…..

"That was marvelous display of battle! All of you were simply grand!" The Regent praised the top hunters of the festival. Artania then walked up to Zidane. "330 points, a new record among the history of our tradition! Congratulations!"

"We grant you the 'Master Hunter' and your requested reward." Cid said as Zidane received the Master Hunter trophy and 5000 gil.

"Congratulations, Zidane!" Vivi said.

"Thanks!" Zidane said.

"Also." We turned to Regent who had more to say. "We also bestow upon all three of our runner-ups their reward."

"Wow, really?" I asked not believing what I heard.

"Of course!" The Regent said proudly. "After the display the rest of you put on, you all are most deserving of your requested rewards." Artania walked to me, Freya and Vivi giving us 3000 gil, a Coral Ring, and a Lindblum playing card respectively."

"Thank you very much, Regent Cid." Vivi thanked the oglop.

"Regent..."

We hear a very exhausted voice from behind us. We turn around to find a heavily wounded rat soldier limping inside the throne room and kneeling down. He wore a tattered purple and blue armor with an emblem similar to Freya's, but the horrible thing about the soldier was that he was bleeding from his body, plus his eyes were gone!

"Oh my!" I hear Dagger gasping.

"God, what did this to him?" I whispered to myself. I turn to Freya who had a worried expression on her face. "Freya is he…?

"Yes." She cut me off. "A soldier from my homeland, Burmecia."

"Please forgive my intrusion..." The Burmecian solider coughed out. "I bring urgent news... from our king."

Regent Cid hopped out of his throne and walked over to the wounded solider. "The king of Burmecia?"

Artania then went over to the Regent and whispered to him, which I was able to hear."(Sire, you must not let him see you like this!)" He warned.

"(Take a good look at him. An injury has blinded him.)" The Regent countered as he looked at the rat soldier's condition, and then turned his attention to him. "Continue."

"Our kingdom is being attacked by some unknown force! We are severely outmatched!" He said in panic. "Please send reinforcements immediately!"

Regent Cid was shocked at the news. "What does the enemy look like?"

"The enemy looks like an army of mages wearing...steeple-crowned hats." The revelation dealt a huge emotional blow to Vivi.

"No…it can't be…" Vivi muttered in fear. All I did was try to console him.

"The king and I are old friends." Cid proclaimed. "We will send reinforcements to Burmecia immediately."

"Thank you, Regent!" The Burmecian gratefully thanked. "The king...and all of Burmecia will be most grateful! I must...return now... ...Ugh." The solider then fell dead.

"Take him to the infirmary!" The Regent tried to inform the guards but it was too late.

"It's too late. He's gone..." Freya stated checking the soldier's pulse. "It's a miracle he even made it this far. I can't believe this is happening..." One guard took the dead body out of the room, so he may rest in peace. I gave a silent prayer for the fallen soldier.

"This is a problem..." Artania thought. "Because of the Festival, there are hardly any men left in the castle. It will take time to mobilize."

"We have no choice... Call back the 4th aerial division patrolling the border." Cid ordered to some nearby guards who went to carry out those orders.

"But if we recall the 4th, we will lose our eyes over Alexandria." Artania argued.

"Gwok-gwok Burmecia is our ally. We must help them." The Regent stated.

"Steeple-crowned hats..." Freya thought. "They might be black mages, like Vivi."

"It can't be..." Vivi muttered again.

"Could it be Mother...!?" Dagger thought looking worried.

"It has to be." I said. "If that factory was owned by Alexandria, then Queen Brahne is behind this invasion."

Freya stood up after listening to my thought. "I must go now. I cannot sit and wait for the reinforcements."

"I'm coming with you." Zidane walked up.

"No. This doesn't concern you." Freya stated.

"What's this, I'm a stranger all of a sudden!?" Zidane asked. "I'm not gonna sit back and watch your home get destroyed, alright?"

Freya caved in and thanked him. "...Thank you, Zidane."

"Um, c-can I come, too? I wanna find out who they really are." Vivi said.

"Sure." Zidane said.

"Alright then. Let's go to Burmecia." Dagger stated. Steiner however did not want that.

"Princess! This is a foreign matter! It has nothing to do with us!" He reasoned.

"Steiner is right. We don't know if Alexandria is involved." The Regent stated.

"But if black mages are involved..." Dagger tried to reason her way in and turned to Zidane and me. "Zidane, Ron, you know what I'm talking about."

"Yeah, because I know this Brahne's doing." I said looking grim. "But going there might not be worth it."

" But if my Mother is behind this, I'll make her stop! I promise!" She pleaded.

"...I think you should stay here." Zidane stated.

"What!?"

"We don't know what to expect there." Zidane further stated.

"I've already faced great danger coming here!" Dagger shouted. "What's the difference!?"

"This is a war that's approaching." I said, causing her to look at me. "A lot more people are gonna die than normal."

"I know that!" She shouted again.

"...How did you feel when you saw that Burmecian soldier die, just now?" Zidane asked.

"...I felt sad, of course." She answered sadly.

"Just sad? Weren't you scared, too?" Zidane asked. "Obviously, you haven't realized how dangerous this is gonna be... You could get killed. This is no time to be convincing your mother of anything."

"But..." Dagger tried to reason but Cid cut her off.

"Now's not the time to argue." He stated. "We need to help Burmecia."

"He's right. We must head to Burmecia at once." Freya said and turned to the Regent. "Will you open the Dragon's Gate?"

"Of course." He complied. "If you're going by foot, leaving from that gate is the best way. Let us eat while we gwok wait for the gate to open." We all nodded as we left for the Dining room. Things were now getting intense….

***************************************************************************************************************************

Oh great, after a grueling competition, a war breaks out! Can't we all just get along?

Next time: Dagger and Steiner runs off while we chase after them through the Mist. We also find a new ally who's very hungry and a pet giant, yellow bird with a knack for treasure hunting!

Next Chapter: **Qu's, Chocobos and Treasure!**

Please Rate & Review, thank you!


	10. CH10:Qu's, Chocobo's and Treasure

**Duelist of Dawn: **Oh yeah! Feeling great again! My favorite authors are making more chapters to their stories and are doing great I might add. Now it's my turn!

**Regent Cid: **(gwok-gwok) Yes, now you are great need to finish your story before going back to college.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Aw man! And it's this Saturday too! I hate deadlines!

**Regent Cid: **Don't we (gwok) all, but you've dealt with them in the past have you (gwok) not?

**Duelist of Dawn: **Yes, I have but this is different!

**Regent Cid: **How so?

**Duelist of Dawn: **I love writing these stories, college work I have to do if I want a good paying job to support me.

**Regent Cid: **By choice, you chose to continue your studies so you must abide by it. (gwok-gwok)

**Duelist of Dawn: **I know, so I'll keep on trucking for now. Thanks to all my reviewers for giving your feedback on my story and loving what I do with the story. If you please, sire.

**Regent Cid: **Of course. The Duelist of Dawn does not own rights of the game Final Fantasy 9, just his self-insert character.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Thank you, Regent Cid! Now let's start this chapter!

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**Chapter 10:**

**Qu's, Chocobos and Treasure!**

After the alarming threat of a Black Mage assault on Freya's homeland of Burmecia, everyone decided on going to Burmecia to stop the invasion which may have caused by Dagger's mother Queen Brahne. But before all that, we all decided to get some food prepared for the ending ceremony of the Festival of the Hunt. And I must say, the spread was looking very tasty to me, everything from different kinds of meats, vegetables and drink were lined up on a giant table.

"Yay! I'm so hungry!" Vivi cried out.

"You and me both, little guy!" I said ready to dig my hands in to the food but I noticed some strange plants on my food so I took them out before getting ready to eat.

"The Festival of the Hunt feast is one of our oldest traditions." The regent informed us. "It began well over five centuries ago. It is customary to eat everything with your hands, so go on, before it gets cold."

"Thank you, Uncle." Dagger said but didn't touch her plate just yet.

"Yeah, thanks for the opportunity not to use silverware!" I said, making a joke which everyone except Freya chuckled at as they started to eat.

Vivi and I wasted no time grabbing some beef and chowing down on it and the sauces on it were great as well.

"Mmmm! It's so good!" Vivi exclaimed eating more of the beef before drinking some juice in his cup.

"Yeah! My compliments to the chef, Regent!" I said taking in another piece of beef. Zidane noticed Freya was deep in thought about something, maybe about Burmecia being sacked right now.

"Let's just eat." Zidane said trying reason with her. "We can't do anything until the gate opens."

Freya sighed and picked up a tomato looking food. "...You're right." She said and began eating.

"Hey, not bad!" Zidane said eating into his plate. I saw Steiner was really getting into the meat part of the dinner as I bit into something looking like a carrot.

"This is wonderful!" Steiner said with his mouth full. He swallowed his food and turned to Garnet who still didn't touch her plate. "Princess, how is everything? Why aren't you eating?"

Garnet snapped out of whatever world she was in at the time. "Oh... I'm sorry. You're right. Everything is so delicious." She said as she finally joined the rest of us in eating.

"Indeed, it is." Steiner agreed as he picked up another piece of beef. "Especially this beef. It is superb!" For the next three minutes or so, we all had our lunch but then some of us started to feel drowsy afterwards.

"Oh, I'm so full." Vivi said drowsily. "I'm getting sleepy now..." Vivi started to fall on his back, fast asleep.

'_Someone's trying to get away from something." _I thought as I start to see Cid and Freya all fall over in a deep sleep and Zidane fighting a losing battle to whatever that's causing this.

Steiner was also taking notice of what's going on. "What the--"He said looking around at everyone knocked out except me. "THE FOOD IS POISONED!" He shouted holding his throat.

"Dagger...?" Zidane finally falls over to the effects of the bug that's doing this as well.

"How could I be so careless!!!" Steiner still continues his outburst and holds his stomach after awhile. "Ugh... I'm starting to feel sick... F-Forgive me, Princess. I should have tasted it for poison..."

Dagger then put on a knowing look. "That's impossible. There shouldn't be any in your dish."

"What...?" He thought now looking okay. "Now that you mention it, I feel just fine." But then he assumed something horrible. "How did you know!? Princess! You didn't!"

"It's not poison." She assured him. "It's just a medicinal herb Zidane gave me. Believe me, this was not what I had planned." It was time to step in.

"Maybe your plan was to stop Queen Brahne by yourself." I said shocking Dagger.

"R-Ron! How did you…. I saw you eat your plate with that sleeping weed like everyone else!" She said in alarm.

"So that's what that strange plant was?" I asked myself and then turned back to Dagger. "Why'd you try to leave everyone out of the loop?" She fidgeted for a bit before answering…

"I have to make my own decisions... I had no choice." She said. "Uncle Cid would never let me leave the castle."

"That is because he is concerned about you!" Steiner cut in.

"I understand that, but--" Dagger tried to say but Steiner cut in again.

"No, you don't understand...!" He said. "War is a terrible thing! You must never experience it like I have. I'm sorry, Princess. I cannot follow any orders that might put your life in danger."

"...What if Alexandria is behind the attack on Burmecia?" She asked in concern. "It could lead to war between the three great nations. Many innocent people will die... As the princess of Alexandria, there must be something I can do. I have to help Mother... I don't want to see anything happen to her..."

Steiner hesitated for a bit before answering. "...... ...Very well. Princess, I will follow you wherever you choose."

"Thank you." She said and turned to me. "Please Ron, you have to let me do this." She begged.

"Alright." I said as she smiled.

"Thank you." She said and turned to Steiner. "Let's go before everyone wakes up." She walks up to Zidane's sleeping form. "I'm sorry, Zidane." She gestured Steiner to follow. "Come on."

Dagger and Steiner proceed to leave before….

"Be careful…" I said as they turned around with questioning looks. "You may not want to hear this but, your mother may try to lie to you, I know she's behind this."

Dagger gasped but Steiner wasn't convinced….

"That's preposterous!!!" He shouted. "The Queen would never cause harm unintentionally!"

"Meaning she has a motive for doing this." I tell him. "Whether you choose to believe me or not, the fact is those Black Mages are hers, and Dagger knows it."

"Dagger... Where are you going...?" I hear Zidane say in his sleep.

"Get going." I tell them. "But remember what I said." Dagger and Steiner then leave as fast as they can. Later on, everyone affect by the sleeping weed starts to wake up.

Freya was the first to talk. "It must've been some sort of sleeping medicine."

"It was sleeping weed." I said walking towards them, having them think I was walking back in the room.

"We've been had..." Cid thought, but suspiciously looked at me. "But how did you know, Ron?" I was about to answer before…

"Damn!" We all turned to Zidane. "I gave her some because she said she was having problems sleeping."

"I'm impressed." Freya acknowledged. "There's more to her than meets the eye."

"Damn, what the heck is she thinking!?" Zidane shouted again. "Maybe she's heading to Burmecia."

"Then you might still be able to catch up with her." Cid quickly said

Zidane went over to Vivi still who was dozing off a bit."Vivi, wake up! We're going to Burmecia!" Zidane yelled which got Vivi up quickly.

"Let's head for Gizamaluke's Grotto." Freya suggested. "Once we pass through the grotto, we will be in Burmecia."

"You can leave from the Dragon's Gate located on the Base Level." Cid informed us. "The Dragon's Gate should be opened by now."

"Right, let's go!" I said as me, Zidane, Freya and Vivi made a dash to the elevator and selected 'Base Level' on the panel. As the elevator began to descend, we began to talk.

"Freya, what's Gizamaluke's Grotto?" Vivi asked.

"Gizamaluke's Grotto is the home of the Burmecian's Battle Master, Master Gizamaluke." Freya said.

"I take it Gizamaluke's not of your race." I told Freya, whom nodded.

"He's more of a serpent-like manta ray monster, but he only attacks intruders." She says. "He trained me and the rest of the Burmecian army in the ways of the Dragon Knight."

"Impressive." I said. "Sounds quite like a master to have."

"Yes, even with your strength, you won't have an easy time with him alone, Ron." She warns me.

"Yeah, I feel sorry for those who cross him." I said. The elevator reaches the base level as we leave through Serpent's Gate.

The Mist was just as thick as ever, it was easy to get lost. Thankfully, I used my Aura Sight to scan the area for hostile life forms in the area. Minutes later, we came across a big a marshland area as we tried to navigate the area.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(Play Qu's Marsh from Final Fantasy 9)

Inside the marsh were some traces of Mist but not enough to lose our way.

"We're inside the Qu's Marsh." I announce while looking at the Map. "Gizamaluke's Grotto is just due north of here."

"Well, since were here, why don't we explore the place?" Zidane suggested.

"Yes, maybe somebody here knows about the invasion taking place." Freya said with a thinking look.

"Hey look!" Vivi shouted while pointing to an open part inside the tall grass. We all walk over to spot as we inspected the grass.

"The grass seems to be disturbed by some thing large." Freya pondered.

"I guess monsters live here, too." Zidane said.

"Better to check it out with caution, eh?" I suggested. Everyone nodded. "I'll take point." I lead everyone threw the open path of the marsh. It was about a half a minute before….

"I hear water." Vivi said.

"Where?" I asked.

"Just outside that clearing." He said as we got out of the tall grass. We saw a small pond with a bridge separating it into two halves. We all see frogs inside water and on some small land patches croaking all the while.

"Wow, I've never seen so many frogs in one spot!" I exclaimed. There were about 15 frogs inhabiting the pond. If monsters were living here, these frogs wouldn't stand a chance.

"Man, this is quite a sight!" Zidane said in awe.

"Wow!" Vivi said crouching down near the pond.

"Not so close, Vivi." Freya told him.

"So hungry…" We all heard some said like it came from all sides. "Want frogs…." It sounded like an obese woman.

"What was that?" I asked putting on my trench knives.

"Don't know, but let's defend ourselves when ready!" Freya said as she whipped out her spear. We then heard something sniffing….

*Sniff, Sniff*

"FROGS!!" We heard the voice, then some loud footsteps against the mud approaching. Threw the grass across the bridge, we had come face-to-face with our intruder: A pale looking beast with plus-shaped eyes and a long pink tongue hanging out its mouth. It wore a chef's hat under its silver hair and a pink and blue dress under a white apron, maybe it was female. I immediately dropped my guard after knowing what it was.

"Stand down, guys; it's just a Qu." I said.

Freya put her spear down and looked at me. "That's a Qu?" She asked pointing to the strange looking beast as it looked at the pond full of frogs like an all you can eat buffet line.

"Yeah, these guys are experts in cooking food out of anything and make it taste good." I informed her, also grabbing the attention of Zidane and Vivi. "But to them, some things that are tasted too much goes bad on their taste buds. (A/N: An explanations on their blue mage learning skills)

"How so?" Zidane asked.

"They are also blue mages that learn their skills from eating monsters." I said but got a sick look on my face. "I just don't want to see them eating it."

"Wow, it's so cool that you know all of this information!" Vivi said.

"Thanks." I replied.

"How did you learn this stuff?" Zidane asked.

"I'm curious as well." Freya added.

"I travel a lot and read a lot different books." I lied. "Plus, its best to know about save havens and dangerous territories of the like."

As I was talking a frog was jumping near me and hid near my shoes. The Qu, on the other hand, tried and failed to get any frog in the ponds as they all hopped away at the last second.

"Sigh, I no can catch frog.." It muttered sadly. It was then I noticed the frog near me and I picked it up looking at it; big mistake…

"OOOH!" The Qu ran across the bridge knocking everyone over and stopping right in front of me. "You got frog! Frogs very good! Mmmm!" It said looking at frog while drooling while I was looking at it with a strange look.

"Hey!" Zidane shouted as he and others got up and dusted themselves off. "Who the heck do you think you are?"

"Me?" The Qu pointed to itself. "I called Quina."

"Okay, Quina, what's the idea of knocking everyone over!?" He yelled. "Doesn't a lady have more respect for others?"

"You shouldn't even say anything." I remarked at Zidane. "Or need I remind you of the incident on that cargo ship?"

"What incident?" Freya asked, being out of the loop.

"Oh, Zidane ended up touching Dagger's…." Vivi started but was interrupted by Zidane.

"VIVI!!" He shouted, while covering his mouth. I chuckled at how Zidane panics in a delicate situation that's not deadly.

"Anyway.." I said addressing Quina. "Quina, do you want this frog?" I held out the frog in my hands.

"Yes, yes! Yes, yes!" Quina shouted jumping up and down for joy. Once she was done, she held out her hands in a begging manner.

"...Alright. Here." I placed the frog in her hands as she took a few steps away.

"Yaaay! Mine, mine!" She shouted then, she ravenously ate the frog right in front of us without a care. I almost got sick from watching her eat.

'_Ever hear of etiquette?' _I thought. After a light snack, another Qu with a chef's hat walks over to us.. He had the same appearances as Quina but his clothing was a pair of blue overalls under a white apron.

"You pathetic, Quina." He said in a reprimanding tone. "Can't even feed yourself."

"But Master Quale, I hungry!" Quina pleaded. It fell on deaf ears as the Qu went out the in far reaches of the marsh. "Wait!" Quina ran after him.

"Should we follow them?" Zidane asked.

"I think so, they don't seem like bad people." I said, and then I added, "Unless you get in the way of their food."

We all followed Quina to a old shack that looks it belongs near a pier somewhere. As we all enter, we hear Quina being lectured by her master, Quale.

"Can't master art of eating just chasing frogs, Quina." Quale said as he sat down on a mat behind a short table.

"But, Master, frogs very good!" Quina replied. "Frogs here best! Better than Alexandria's."

Quale sighed as he knew he couldn't quell Quina's appetite for frogs. "Quina, you in darkness. Need some light. World big place." He said as he looked at her with knowledge. Many many foods. Alexandria just one kingdom. You need go out more, eat other food."

"Go out into world...?" Quina said as she shuddered. "Sound scary. Are there yummier frogs outside?"

"Of course!" He shouted, shaking Quina out of her fear and making the rest of us jump as well. "Many good frogs! All Qus love frogs the best. Eating frogs is key to growth. Qu marshes exist all over the world. Go eat frogs in other marshes. I promise, you get much learning." Quale then turned to us. "Traveler, please show Quina the world. Anywhere with good food."

Zidane looked perplexed. "You want me to take her with us?"

"Why not?" I asked. "If she can battle, she could help us fight off the invasion, plus with her skills as a gourmand, we could eat without breaking."

"Will I find yummier frogs outside?" Of course Quina had a one track mind. Most girls I've seen worry about looks, dreams, and marriage, Quina just wants to eat frogs. (A/N: Hope I don't insult any female readers out there. ;))

"There is plenty of stuff in the world that tastes better than frogs." Zidane said.

"Really really!?" Zidane nodded. "Okay, I go with you!"

Quale and Zidane groaned as if they made a terrible mistake as Quina waited with the Freya outside and Zidane who just made his exit.

As Vivi and I head out, he turns back around, looking at Quale.

"What's wrong, Vivi?" I asked.

"Um... That man looks exactly like my grandpa." Vivi said, shocking me.

"Your grandfather?" I said. "Your grandfather was a Qu?"

"Yeah... Maybe he knows my grandpa." He said. "I'm gonna go talk to him, Ron."

We both walked back to the Master Qu and Vivi was starting to examine his face.

"What wrong? Something on my face?" Quale asked.

"Um... Do you know a man named Quan?" Vivi asked.

Quale gasped before quickly composing himself. "...I not know that bigot!" He muttered quickly, but Vivi and I weren't convinced, so Vivi asked him another question.

"Grandpa Quan was a bit strange, but... How do you know him?"

"I-I no can answer." Quale stuttered as if he tried to get out of something.

"Grandpa Quan looks exactly like you, Mr. Quale..." Vivi stated.

"Of course. We from same tribe." Quale responded normally.

"So you really do know him!" I shouted at him.

"No!" Quale shouted back. "I not know this Quan!"

"Honestly...?" I said.

"Honestly…." He answered.

"Truthfully?"

"Truthfully."

"Did he do something to hurt you in anyway?" I quickly asked.

"Yes, he…" Quale was about to answer but quickly caught on. "I know not this Quan, go away!!"

I decided to end it there because it must've been pretty devastating for him. "That's too bad... Let's go, Vivi."

"Okay..." Vivi muttered as he took one final look at Quale before leaving behind me. We all saw Zidane and Freya outside waiting for us.

"What was all that commotion about?" Zidane asked.

"Just getting directions to a helpful place." I asked, and gave Vivi a looking saying, 'Don't worry, I won't blab about that incident in there.' He nodded as he adjusted his hat.

"To where?" Freya asked. I then notice the predicament I put myself in.

'_Uh oh! Think of something, quick!' _I thought while hiding my anxiety. I then snapped my fingers. "I remember now, east of this place is a forest with paths to valuable treasure that's said to help us."

"That's great, as soon as Quina's done we move out!" Zidane exclaimed.

"What's Quina doing?" Vivi asked.

"Training." Freya said bluntly. Soon enough, Quina showed up.

"I finish! We go now?" Quina asked.

"Yeah to the east!" I said as everybody left the marsh.

(End music)

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Walking through the Mist and across the bridge, we fought and killed off some weak monsters like these little red things called Hedgehog Pies. I know, but I didn't come up with the name. If I did, they would be actually pies! No one would eat them though. It was pretty uneventful until...

We saw a large pink dragon coming up towards us.

"An Ironite, how very droll." I said, getting my fists up.

"Don't worry, I've fought these before." Freya said. "Just follow my lead."

Freya lead us in the battle against the ironite. She was able to lead the dragon in her direction with her spear, letting Vivi smack it with a blizzard and Zidane striking with his double-bladed sword. When that happened, the dragon tried to slice us with its wings but at the wings stabbed down by Freya and I.

"Wow that was easy!" Vivi said looking at the bruised dragon that was failing to fly.

"Yeah, but we need to kill it before it call for backup." I said, about to slice off the head.

"HUNGRY!!!" But Quina had other plans, she rushed past me and started to stab and slice the dragon down with her weapon, which turned out to be an oversized fork! Strange, I know, but it does the job so I'm not complaining. But the next thing she did made me, turn away: She took the slice up pieces of the dragon and swallowed them whole; her stomach's like a bottomless pit!

"Oh…"

"…My…"

"…God."

Zidane, Freya and Vivi said as they looked on at Quina as she devoured her light snack as she puts it.

"Is it over yet?" I said still turned around.

"Yeah." Zidane said. I turned back around to see no trace of the Ironite left.

"Damn, you can put it away can you?" I said in astonishment.

"Let's just get to this forest, before I lose my lunch." Zidane said as we all came across the forest in question. We head into the forest and find another moogle riding on a wild chocobo. The chocobo took caution as it stood back a couple of steps before settling it eyes on me while it tilted its head a little.

'_Is that chocobo staring at me?' _I thought.

"Kupooo!!! I'm Mene, master of this forest!" The moogle said. "This chocobo is my friend, kupo. His name is Choco."

_"Kweeeh!" _Choco gave out a cry that might have meant 'Hello.'

"And this is Chocobo's Forest!" Mene said while raising its small arms around the place.

"Hey, did a cute girl with long hair come by here?" Zidane asked the moogle.

"No. But an ugly girl came by here." Mene answered.

"Oh... I guess she didn't come this way." Zidane said looking down. "Maybe she's heading toward Burmecia after all... I'd better get movin'."

"Yeah, and from the sounds of it, Queen Brahne's in that direction, too!" I added.

"You in a hurry, kupo?" Mene asked.

"Yeah, sort of." I answered.

"Then take Choco." He said looking to the chocobo. "You won't run into monsters if you ride Choco. Choco, come here."

Choco still looked at me with a vacant expression on his face.

"It's okay. Don't force him..." Zidane said.

"No." Mene said. "If Choco hates, Choco runs away. Choco, come on! Kupo!!!"

"Kweeeh!!!" Choco shouted as it ran towards me.

"Huh?" I saw the yellow bird running towards me. "Hey, stop!" I shouted putting my hands out. Suddenly, Choco just stops right in front of me. "Huh?"

Choco then starts rubbing his face towards mine. His feathers were soft against my cheek as I started to pet him.

"He likes me?" I asked no one in particular. Zidane was also confused to how one minute the Chocobo wanted to rush at me, the next he's being buddy-buddy with me.

"I guess so." Mene answered. "I can just get to the point, kupo." He pulled out a pouch full of green plants shaped like a claw. "These are Gysahl Greens! You can call Choco outside the forest with these. Find chocobo footprints outside anywhere in the world,kupo. Use Gysahl Greens there, and Choco will come. Choco likes you, kupo. You call, and he'll come! Please train Choco! Make him strong! I'll also tell you a big secret, kupo."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"Choco has the power to seek out treasure from ancient tablets I call Chocographs, kupo!" Mene said pulling out a stone which looked like it had a picture of a river on it.

"It has a picture on it?" I asked, looking over the acclaimed Chocograph.

"Yes, I think it leads to treasure, kupo!" I said. "Can you figure it out?"

'_Hmm, from the looks of this, I see that this location is just right outside!' _I thought as a flash over that river we crossed to get here.

"I'll be right back!" I said. "I know where to find this!"

"Okay." Zidane said as the others nodded.

I looked at Choco who was already crouching down so I can mount him. As soon as I got on his back, he lifted up and walked out of the forest.

"Okay, Choco?" I asked.

"Kweh?" He looks up to me.

"Look at this graph then check your surroundings for the location, kay?" I informed him.

"Kweh!" He nodded as I let him look at the graph. After a minute, we set off across the bridge near the shores. "KWEEEHHHH!!!"

"You found it?" I asked. He responded by using his beak and the claws on his feet to start digging. It took about 10 minutes before the treasure was dug up, afterwards Choco was tired. "I guess that's what Mene meant about training you to be strong." I opened the treasure by punching the worn-out locking and it reveal some battle gear!

"Alright, let's get this to the guys!" I fed Choco some greens and he was good to go. His endurance was okay, but his speed was amazing, maybe because he knows the way home.

"Hey guys, I'm back!" I shouted as me and Choco entered the forest.

"What did you find?" Vivi asked.

"Battle Gear!" I said tossing a new Oak staff to Vivi, a Battle Vest to Zidane and some gauntlets to Freya. I got some boots that felt good against my feet. After a few minutes of outfitting we set off to Gizamaluke's Grotto, just hope we're ready to stop Brahne…..

**************************************************************************************************************************

Sorry this is a short chapter, but I'm having problems with my beat up laptop so I'll save the action for the last 3 chapters. That's right I'm almost done with Book 1 of the Melodies of Life Chronicles! Wish me luck!

Next Time: We reached the Grotto but all is not going well for the good side. We see wounded and dead Burmecian soldiers left and right, while the Black Mages are cleaning house. Also, where's this Master Gizamaluke when you need him? You'll hate the answer.

Next Chapter: **Only Way Out: Fight the Master!**

Please Rate and Review! See ya!


	11. CH11:Gizamaluke's Grotto

**Duelist of Dawn: **This is going well for the story, except for who's introducing the story with me….

**Quina: **Hi Ron!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Hello Quina, didn't think you'd be here so quickly.

**Quina: **Of course! I get more yummy-yummies during journeys!

**Duelist of Dawn: **You know, you're here to help introduce the next chapter with me right?

**Quina: **Yes, yes!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Ok, but first I'll thank all the reviewers especially FF&STH, Katherine the Black Rose, Aerith the Evenstar and Khiruki. I'm still going strong, baby!

**Quina: **We eat now?

**Duelist of Dawn: **(groans) Not until you do the Disclaimer.

**Quina: **Oh, Duelist of Dawn no own Final Fantasy 9, own self-insert character. Also, he no own music used in story.

**Duelist of Dawn: **Now you can eat.

**Quina: **(runs through wall to the dining room)

**Duelist of Dawn: **Start the chapter, so I can control the big glutton! And since Dagger and Steiner went off in their own direction, I'll also showoff their path to wherever their headed.

***************************************************************************************************************************

**Chapter 11:**

**Only Way Out: Fight the Master!**

Now with Quina and Choco aboard, we were able to get across the Mist-filled lands a bit more smoothly now. With Choco, we were able to avoid enemies more since we need to save our strength on defending Burmecia, never though a Chocobo could be man's best friend as well. He enjoyed a good pat on the head every now and then for his good deeds. And Quina, as disgusting she may be on her eating habits in front of an audience, she's a glorious cook! We were able to find some Zaghnols in the area and with some pre-emptive strike and some know-how from the Festival of the Hunt, we were able to give out quick kills and Quina cooked us some meat that we could eat later on. I took an experimental taste since I don't know this world in a personal way, and it turned out okay!

With all of that out of the way, we made perfect timing to the entrance of Gizamaluke's Grotto….or so we thought…

"No...!" I said as I ran over to the doorway with Freya, looking at the gruesome site. At the entrance, there were two fallen Burmecian soldiers, slumped over the walls, dead.

"Come on! Get up! Dammit! Say something!" Freya tried to awaken them to no avail. Zidane, Vivi and Quina followed after.

"Oh, man..." Zidane gasped at the horrible site.

"Damn, they got here before us!" I shouted. Freya stood up with anger in her eyes.

"The black mages! Who are they!?" Freya asked, looking at Vivi.

"U-Um..." Vivi trembled at the expression Freya had on her face and I can't blame her. Her brethren, her family were being slaughtered and they had done nothing to deserve this!

"It's okay. You didn't do anything." Zidane said, trying to relax Vivi.

"Yeah, these Black Mages of the Queen are responsible for this crap!" I said feeling angry.

"Vivi, aren't they your—"Freya tried to say, but then had a worried expression on her face. "The king might be in danger! Come on!" And with that she rushed into the grotto entrance.

"I sure hope Dagger didn't come here..." Zidane wondered as he looked over the dead bodies. He then turned to face the rest of us. "Let's go." We all ran into the grotto, ready to face any danger.

The interior was like tunnels, made for a giant snake, must be Gizamaluke's doing. The torches were hanging on the wall, lighting up the pathway. At the end, we found a door with a huge bronze bell inside it. We see Freya looking at the door.

"Hey Freya!" Zidane said getting her attention. "Why didn't you got through?"

"Maybe the door's locked." I inquired.

"Ron's right, you see the giant bell embedded in the door?" Freya told us as we all nodded.

"It edible?" Quina asked in her one track mind. We all groaned at her comment.

"No, this bell has a defense lock on it to keep out intruders." Freya said, and then looked down. "But it seems that isn't great enough to stop our oppressors." I walked over to Freya and gave a reassuring look.

"Hey don't worry so much, the sooner we can get inside, the sooner we can help the Burmecians fight of these freaks." I said placing my hands on her shoulders. "Besides, we may not know what's going on with the Kingdom, but we have to keep our hope alive and pray that your King is safe, maybe escaped to somewhere safer."

After a bit, Freya smiled. "You're right, thank you Ron."

"No problem." I said and then turned to the bell-locked door. "Now, all we have to do is find a special bell around here, right?"

"That's correct." Freya answered. I turned my attention to see a small room to the right of the room.

"Hey Vivi, check in there to see if there's a bell somewhere." I told the black mage.

"Okay." Vivi rushed in there to look when suddenly, "Guys, there's a Burmecian in here!" We all ran into the room, inside we find a Burmecian soldier still clinging to life.

"Hey, are you alright!?" Zidane asked.

"...Black mages... Couldn't do anything." The soldier gasped out while holding his bleeding wound with his right hand.

"We're here to help. We're on our way to Burmecia." Vivi said.

"Thank the Gods, ugh... I'm done for." The soldier shakily raised his left hand holding a silver bell with a handle. "Take this bell, and... go to Burmecia..." He handed the bell to Freya. "The black mages... took the rest our bells... The king's in...palace... Please protec..." As tried to finish his sentence, he slumps over dead.

"We'll protect him. Don't worry." I said as I bowed in his respect. We all left the room and back to the bell door.

"Let's go." Freya said. She started ringing the bell and soon enough the bell on the door was ringing as well!

"Wow!" Vivi and I said. Afterwards, the door open and the bell in Freya's hand shattered. We all gasped at the sight.

"To keep intruders from using them, let's go." Freya bluntly answered our thoughts as we followed her to the next room. When we were halfway through the hall, we heard three identical and inhuman voices shout.

"KILL!"

"KILL!"

"KILL!"

"The Hell!?" I said, as we ran the rest of the way to find two black mages standing on an archway and another one outside it, attacking another Burmecian solider.

"KILL!" The first black mage shoots fire at a guard.

"ARGH!" The soldier dropped to the ground wounded, but hanging on to life.

"We have to help!" Freya shouted as we walked into the archway and formed a protective circle around the beaten soldier.

"…Freya…that you?" The solider asked.

"Don't speak, save your strength." Freya retorted. Just then we see the two jesters Zorn and Thorn walk out onto a ledge over where we are standing.

"Who are they?" Zorn asked his partner.

"That, I don't know." Thorn answered. Zorn looked at me and Zidane more thoroughly.

"I know I have seen those two people somewhere before." Zorn said, pointing his finger at me and Zidane.

"Somewhere before?" Thorn wondered as he racked his brain for the answer. "I have not seen them. I know."

"I guess it is not important." Zorn dismissed as he got a sinister grin on his face. "Let's kill them."

"Yes, kill them, shall we?" Thorn said, sporting the same grin.

"BLACK MAGES, KILL THEM!" They commanded in unison. The two black mages on the arch way jumped down to meet the one on ground as they prepared to attack.

"KILL!" They said powering up there magic.

"Ron, grab him!" Zidane yelled pointing the soldier. I complied as I held the soldier in my arms as we all dodged the combined fire assault the black mages unleashed. I put the soldier down somewhere safe as I turned to everyone else, staring down the mages.

"Anyone got a potion!?" I asked. Quina threw a hi-potion at me which I caught in one hand.

"Here!" I fed the soldier the potion which healed his wounds. He instantly shot up on his feet holding his spear high. "You okay?" I asked.

"Yes, much obliged, warrior." He thanked. "Now let's fight!" We both rushed in getting into our stances.

"Okay, we can double-team all three of them!" Zidane shouted and pretty soon we were grouped up: Zidane and Freya, Vivi and Quina, and me and the soldier.

The black mage I faced began the assault by not gathering magic, but tried to strike me and the soldier with their hands.

"Stupid." I said as I quickly grabbed its hands and pulled toward me giving savage headbutts. Then, I kicked it in the gut and threw in the air.

"Ready?" The soldier said as he ran towards me. I saw his motives as I bunched my hands together and as he stepped on them, I launched him in the air letting him stab the black mage in the gut and drove it to the ground and landing it.

"Nice work!" I said and he gave me a 'thumbs up'.

Vivi and Quina were exceptional as well. From the looks of the black mage, Quina drew the attention by pretending to attack so that Vivi fired his magic on vital parts of the mage, even though it saddened him to do so. Quina dealt the finishing blow by stabbing the mage in the back.

Freya and Zidane did the same with Freya being decoy and Zidane going in for the hits. Freya did a jumping assault which hovered a bit before slamming it home on the black mages head. All the while, Zorn and Thorn looked terrified at the display of skill we put on.

"HEEE! Savage monsters, they are!" Thorn shouted

"Run away!" Zorn shouted as the two of them high-tailed it deeper into the grotto.

"Cowards." I muttered.

"Now for this one!" The soldier who helped us tried to attack Vivi out of the blue! Luckily, I blocked the spear with my hands and snatched it with out effort.

"Hey, first you help us, now you attack my friend!?" I yelled at the soldier.

"Friend!? These mages attacked us, now you're defending them!?" He shouted back.

"If you didn't notice, he's not like them and he helped fight those mages with us!" Zidane shouted as Vivi ran behind Quina.

"He's right, don't act so hastily." Freya added giving her comrade a stern look.

"Sorry, it's just we're losing everything to these monsters." He said and turned to Vivi. "My apologies, little one." Vivi nodded in response. He then took two bells out and gave them to me. "You'll need one to use on this door." He pointed to a bell door behind him. "And another on the door inside the next room on your right." He said as he walked away.

"Where you going?" Quina asked the retreating Burmecian.

"I'm going to Lindblum, hopefully I'll get help." He said. "Please help the king." He then walked out the way we came in.

"He'll be okay." Freya said. "Ron, open the door." I nod as I use it to get into the next room. Inside we find an odd sight. We see a female moogle standing next to a broken bell, yelling at something inside of it.

"Darling! Can you hear me!? Darling!!! Please say something!" The female moogle shouted. We all ran to the moogle and the bell.

"I didn't expect to see a moogle here." Zidane stated as he crouched down to see the moogle. "What's wrong?"

"My husband, Moguta! He's inside the bell! He's trapped! Kupo!!!" She yelled out and started tearing up.

"You poor thing..." Freya consoled.

"My name's Mogmi, we just held our wedding here. Then some scary clowns attacked us! I was so scared! Kupopo!!!" She said shaking.

I closed my eyes, to sense the moogle's aura and it was indeed trapped inside still alive. "He's okay, maybe knocked out though.

"That bell's huge." Zidane said looking over the large bell. "Ron, can you lift it?"

"Sure." I said as I walked over to the bell getting ready to lift.

"Huh?" Mogmi said as she suddenly started sniffing around. "Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff! Sniff sniff!" She was lead by her nose to Vivi as she looked at him with a happy face.

"H-Hello. Um..." Vivi said nervously, being so close to a moogle.

"Oh! Oh!!! Wait... Yeah!" Mogmi said hyperactively. "It's you!!! I know you! I know you!! I know you!!! Um, um, um, um, um, um, um! Hey, hey, hey!!! You have Kupo Nut!"

"Y-Yeah... I got one in Lindblum." Vivi answered.

"Really!? Really!? Really!? Really!? C-Can I have it?" Mogmi asked still hyper.

"Okay." Vivi gave the small nut to Mogmi. Suddenly, she hopped on Vivi and started hugging him.

"Kupooo!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said quickly and jumped off Vivi and stood next to me by the bell. "Darling! Darling!" She said in an endearing tone to the moogle inside the bell. "I have yummy Kupo Nut!"

And without a beat, there were massive ringing going on inside bell when…

"Kupooo!"

"WHOA!"

The moogle inside the bell busted out of the bell, while knocking me over.

"Darling!!!" Mogmi shouted as she watched her husband jump freely around the room.

"Kupooo! I love Kupo Nuts!" Moguta shouted as he ate the Kupo Nut and ran off.

"Darling! Where are you going!?" Mogmi shouts then turns to Vivi. "U-Um, thank you! Darling!!!" She runs off after her husband.

"What a crazy couple..." Zidane muttered.

"I'll say, that moogle was crazy strong when you mention Kupo Nuts." I said, getting off my butt.

We use the second bell, to the door on the right finding the same moogles in a cavern. Moguta runs up to us and excitedly speaks to me.

"I love Kupo Nuts! Do you like Kupo Nuts?" He asks.

"Uh, yes?" I said feeling awkward around him.

"I like you." He says while running to a statue nearby, spins it, takes something, and spins it back before running to me giving me a crystal bell. "Kupo! Take this, kupo!"

"Thanks!" I said. As the rest of us returns to the room, we notice a large snake slithering around. The strange thing about this one is that the while the tail looked like it belong to a snake's body, the rest didn't. It looked nearly like a human female with long blond hair covering the eyes while showing off its mouth. It also had a tiara on its head and held a fan in one of its hands and a knife in the other.

"What's a Lamia doing here?" I asked.

"You know what that thing is?" Zidane asked me.

"Yeah, you think it's ugly by first glance but sometimes they can mimic any woman, mostly the ones considered beautiful and seduce into an early grave." I said.

"Have ever fell victim to it?" Freya asked.

"No, I'm somewhat oblivious because I know when a girl is using me or being sincere." I said, putting it bluntly. "Plus I know a guy who almost fell for if it weren't for the girl the Lamia was impersonating just trying to seduce him to bed."

(A/N: Guess what Final Fantasy game that came from!)

"Let's just beat that thing up so we can reach Burmecia." Zidane stated.

"Wait!" I shouted, unfortunately it alerted the Lamia to our presence. "Oh shit!" As much as I had a history with battling Lamia's, it's a bit intimidating staring down a giant something the size of an anaconda.

The Lamia first tried to tail sweep us, which we all jumped over. It then quickly retaliated with a fan smack to Quina's face. I took advantage of the position and gave that snake a swift punch to the torso.

"Bilzzard!" Vivi shot an ice block to the face of the Lamia and Freya swiped the fan away with the spear. Now the Lamia got desperate by trying to seduce me by spray a pheromone heart at me.

"Ron!" Vivi shouted as the heart hit me. But strangely enough I felt dazed as I looked down on the floor. The Lamia next try to stab me with the knife. "Look out!"

But the slash never came as everyone in the room saw that I caught the knife with both hands struggling not to let it land. The Lamia looked surprised as it looked at my eyes to see I wasn't dazed!

"Sorry sweetie, I'm not interested!" I pushed the knife away and chopped both the Lamia's wrists make it drop the knife. "Dragon Kick!" I hit the Lamia straight in the face with a flaming kick, knocking it out. Afterwards, the others came up to me.

"You okay?" Vivi asked.

"Never better! Told ya that stuff doesn't affect me!" I said feeling proud of myself.

"Man, never thought you could resist the advances of a woman." Zidane said patting me on the back.

"That was no lady!" I shouted. "It was a feminine monster."

"Let's use the Holy Bell to reach Master Gizamaluke's room, it's also the exit that reaches Burmecia." Freya informed us.

"Cool." I then noticed something missing. "Where's Quina?" We all turned to see Quina chowing down on some meat a la Lamia.

"Ugh!" Zidane, Vivi, Freya and I said at the same time watching Quina eating something big and raw. She then turn to use with her fork full of meat.

"You want?" Quina offered.

"No thanks!" We shouted as Quina finished off the last of the Lamia.

"I so full! Let's go find more yummy-yummies!" Quina shouted.

Using the Holy Bell on the last door on the left side, we finally enter the last room of the grotto. We see that the room his full of water with the exception of a land mass leading towards the door to outside. Also we found another Burmecian Soldier, still alive, and slumped near the water.

"Are you alright!?" Freya asked the wounded soldier.

"Freya... Please be careful..." He warned her. Master Gizamaluke has gone mad. He's being controlled by some strange clowns."

"Great, what did those two freaks do this time!?" I asked in anger. Just then, a large serpent-like creature falls into the water.

"What was that!?" Vivi said feeling frightened at the eerie slience after that splash that monster made.

"It's Gizamaluke!" Freya shouted as the monster took to the surface. Gizamaluke was a blue aquatic or maybe amphibious monster that looks like a cross between a serpent and a manta ray with a large tail and bat-like wings.

(Play Blue on the Run from Sonic and the Secret Rings)

Gizamluke started strong with a tail strike to Zidane, knocking the wind out of him.

"Zidane, you alright!?" I said seeing him holding his stomach.

"I'll be fine." He said. "LOOK OUT!" He rolled to left as Gizamluke used his tail to strike me but I blocked it with arms, still it sent me flying to the wall. But I use the momentum and bunched my legs on the wall and pushed off and started charging my arms.

"Thunder Blades!" My arms became electric-charged scythes as I swatted the next tail strike and swiped at his face giving him a nasty scar and causied him to roar in place. "Ha!"

Vivi took this time to cast some magic. "Thunder!" A lightning bolt struck the serpent as it convulsed a bit. Before Quina and Freya got there chance, Gizamaluke fired a shockwave at Vivi. He braced himself for the pain, but it never came.

"You okay?" Zidane asked him.

"……" No words came from Vivi's mouth.

"He must have silenced him so he can't use magic!" Freya shouted. "There goes one advantage."

"Not yet." Quina said. I suddenly felt magic being charged at was coming from Quina! "Angel's snack!" Blue energy shot from her hand to Vivi's throat before dissipating. As that was happening, Freya and Zidane hit both wings making Gizamlauke come to ground, but it was still able to continue.

"I can talk again!" Vivi shouted. "Thanks Quina." Our praised was short lived as I felt more magic being cast and this time it was Gizamaluke! Next thing we know, everyone was encased in water, it started to suffocate and crush us with its pressure. Afterwards, the water evaporated and we dropped to the ground, gasping for air.

"Man, that's powerful!" I said, and then started spitting out water out of my mouth.

"Yes, being a master of the water element, he can manipulate water to the point where it's pressure become unbearable." Freya noted.

"Well we can't go on like this, we need some defense!" Zidane shouted.

"I got!" Quina said while charging her blue magic again. "Mighty Guard!" Yellow and blue energy surrounded us as it felt we were wearing light armor on.

"Why didn't you do this before?" Zidane said.

"Wastes lot of magic." Quina said, panting.

It was then a familiar bright light came around Freya, signaling a Trance. As the tornado of light was absorbed into her Freya' clothes were now good as new and her spear turned into a trident like shape.

"Well now we are in business, let's go!" I shouted. I gave Gizamluke a flying kick but it missed as he tilted his head then used it to smack me. Then Freya took to the skies and the amazing thing was that she was able to stay up there. Gizamaluke's abilities couldn't even touch her now that he was forced to battle on land.

"Flying Spear Assualt!" Freya cried as her trident glowed bright. She attacked her weapon as if a million spears were impaling the serpent. Afterwards, Gizamaluke was running out of energy. He sought to retreat in the water but Vivi was one step ahead.

"Thunder!" As soon as the rest off heard the attack, Zidane, Quina and I were running away from the water near the wounded soldier and Freya was still protected by her Trance state while airbourne. The thunder spell hit the water as it danced throughout the surface and made Gizamaluke into a huge lightning conductor as it took the massive spell and sunk into the water.

(End music)

Freya returned to her normal state as she landed on the ground. "What happened to Master Gizamaluke...? She wondered. "He should have been too strong to withstand any mind control."

"Maybe he was weakened when he fought the black mages." I said.

"Perhaps." She said. And then she walked towards the solider. "Can you stand up?"

"Don't worry... about me..." He choked out. "Please... protect Bur...me..." His life left him, but we all knew what his dying wish was.

"I will protect Burmecia. You have my word." Freya said.

"You have everyone's word." I corrected.

"Yeah, Freya. We've been pals for awhile." Zidane added. "If your people are in danger, we should all help."

"That's right." Vivi said.

"I go too." Quina added.

"Thank you all." She said in gratitude. "Let's hurry and stop this madness."

"Right!" We all run out of the exit after paying our respects to the fallen soldiers and got ready for the fight at Burmecia.

***************************************************************************************************************************

(Meanwhile, at another location) (3rd point of view)

South Gate was being repaired from the air attack the Black Waltz No.3 gave us after we shut the door on him, causing his airship to crash. Although the airship gate was still being reconstructed, gate by foot was the only way to pass the borders between Alexandria and Lindblum. And one particular knight was seeking to cross it…. If Zidane and company went to the arch near Chocobo's forest, they would have found Steiner and Dagger.

Steiner approaches the gate with a bag tied to a stick slung over his shoulder. He looks over the small gateway leading inside the main gate.

(Once we cross this gate, we are in Alexandrian territory!) Steiner whispered to what it seems to be his bag. Or rather inside the bag.

(Okay, go ahead in.) The something inside the bag was Dagger!

Steiner walks up to two guards near the gate as they stopped him. They were two soldiers form Lindblum, one was short and the other one was tall.

"Hold it right there." The short guard stated.

"What's the purpose of your visit?" The tall guard asked Steiner.

"I heard workers were needed to fix South Gate." Steiner said, clearly lying to them. "I brought my belongings so that I might live and work here."

"That's great!" The tall guard said. "They've been working on the gate non-stop since the accident, but it's still broken."

"I need to check your bag." The short guard said while pointing to the bag over Steiner's shoulder. "Rules and regulations, you know."

"......Okay." Steiner said as he sets his...large bag down.

"Would you step back?" The short guard asked Steiner. He stepped down two steps while keeping his attention on the bag.

"There, that's good. Sorry, just doing our job." The tall guard said. "So...Where are you from?"

'_Blast, I must do something!' _Steiner thought as the short guard started to untie the knot on the bag.

"The police are searching for a girl and a middle-aged man." The tall guard stated. "Did you see a pair like that on your way here?"

"This knot is really tight..." The short guard muttered as he tried to undo the knot.

"The girl supposedly looks exactly like Princess Garnet, the most beautiful princess ever to grace Alexandria Castle." The tall guard was continuing questioning the whereabouts of the people he stated.

"I got it now." The short guard managed to get a part opened as he began to open the bag.

"But you know how Queen Brahne looks." The tall guard said. "It's hard to believe she'd have such a beautiful daughter."

"Ungh!? WHAT IS THIS!?" The short guard got a whiff of the smell inside the bag and stepped back and qurstioned Steiner. "Wh-What is that!? What are those...those... ...rotten things! Are they poison!?"

"Rotten? I'm not carrying anything that's rotting..." Steiner said sincerely.

The tall Guard guard pulled a pickle out of the bag. "Oh, it's your least favorite food..." He said the short guard. "...the Lindblum delicacy, gysahl pickles." He turned to Steiner next. "I can't believe how many you brought with you!"

"They are my favorite!" Steiner exclaimed. "I cannot start my day without them."

"Yeah, sure. People who like 'em all say that." The tall guard said. "You can go now."

Steiner picked up the bag. "Thank you. Good day." Steiner walks through the gate. Inside, there are a few people around, working and talking around the gate. Steiner takes the time to whisper to the contents of the bag.

(We're inside the gate! Princess, you've done it again.) He praises. (Now, I must find a spot where I won't be seen...) Steiner searches the area and finds a secluded alleyway. (That alley looks acceptable. But a girl and a man are in the way.)

Steiner overhears a tapir-looking worker saying something about the Mist gate being broken and decides to use that knowledge as he goes to talk to a man inspecting a pile of machinery.

"Let's see... I need two of Model #3..." The man says before turning around. "Oh, you brought your things with you. Are you here to work?"

"I-Indeed." Steiner stuttered.

"Welcome!" The engineer greeted. "I'm also new here. I've been working here for five months as the chief engineer of Bohden Gate. But he's the only one working under me." He points to the tapir-looking man. "I'll be going back to the castle next month, when my contract expires. I'll be joining a team of engineers who are developing a new engine that runs without Mist. The world outside the Mist Continent is uncharted territory, but there's no need to worry about our safety if we can explore it on an airship. Regent Cid is an advocate of technological advancement." He noticed he had been talking a lot. "Oh, sorry. I talked your ear off."

"There's something I must tell you." Steiner said as he whispered something into the engineer's ear. The engineer gasps.

"...The gate to the bottom of the Mist has been left broken!?" He turned to his worker. "Did he think he could get away with that!? Excuse me!" The man runs off after learning of his worker's incompetance.

(Now I just need to get rid of that girl...) Steiner says as he runs over to the girl who's wearing a green dress that's down to her ankles.

"I can't believe my best friend went out of business..." She looks at another man in worker clothes sitting near a ladder looking down about something. "I didn't know, because I was on the other side of the mountain."

"What good is it to bemoan what has already happened?" Steiner says bluntly. That comment caused Garnet to kick him from inside the bag and made him correct his previously statement.

"Wh-What I meant to say was that...Now that we are here, there must be things we can do to help the ones we love."

"You're right." The girl said. "I gotta encourage him. Thanks!" She runs over to her friend.

(The coast is clear.) Steiner whispers as he heads into the alley, but--

"Hey, hold on!" The short guard stops him. "Rules and regulations, you know. Would you come over here?

Steiner silently walks over to the guard before--

"Stop right there!" Steiner stops walking. "Don't make a move until I tell you! Now, turn toward me slowly... Don't make a false move." Steiner made a small turn to the guard. "Phew... You need a Gate Pass to reach the South Gate summit. I'm leaving it right there." The guard places the pass on the ground. "Pick it up after I leave. I'd come closer, but you're carrying those stinky pickles! See? I'm leaving it right here!" The guard goes back to the outside gate as Steiner picks up the pass after the guard leaves and hits the alley. As he gets there, he places the bag behind the boxes and searched the alley for people.

"Ahem... 'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world'" He quotes from the Tantalus play.

"Steiner...?" Dagger asks from within the bag. "Is it okay for me to come out?"

"Yes!" Steiner says.

"Thank you. I will come out now. Please keep an eye out." She says.

"Yes, ma'am!" Steiner walks over to the other side of the boxes keeping a lookout.

Rustle rustle... Rustle rustle... Dagger finally gets out of the bag but without clothing.

"Oh, finally!" She exclaims. "Some fresh air! What a horrible smell... It gave me a terrible headache." She then whispers to herself. (Maybe I'll get changed while he's on lookout.) She then puts on her clothes.

"Let's see..." Steiner mutters as he stays on lookout. "Uh-huh..."

After a few minutes, Dagger comes out from behind the crate, fully dressed.

"You can turn around now, Steiner." She says as Steiner turns around to salute.

"Princess...!" He says but gets cut off.

"Steiner!" Dagger scolds.

"Yes...? Oh, um, yes, Miss Dagger." Steiner corrects himself.

"You have to call me Dagger until we reach Treno." Dagger tells him. "Don't salute me, either."

"Yes, until we reach Treno and find a way back to the castle, I will be careful." Steiner states.

"Okay, let's go." She and Steiner walk out and over to the other side of the alley to find the Berkmea cable car station.

"Wow...!" Dagger exclaims. "That cable car will take us to the summit. We're almost there, Steiner. Alexandria is just beyond the summit, right? I managed it without Zidane's help...!"

"You never needed him to begin with, Princess." Steiner stated.

They show the gate pass to the conductor and board the Berkmea cable car and sit down in the back.

"Please wait while I prepare for departure." The conductor says as he checks the system.

"Wait! Wait for me!" A female voice calls from outside. And sure enough, the girl form the gate appeared. Pant, pant... I made it!" She then looks to Steiner. "Thank you for your kind words earlier."

"No, I thank you." Steiner says, confusing the girl.

"Now departing!" The cable car takes off as it starts ascending the mountain.

"Phew... I feel more relaxed now." Dagger says.

"That is understandable." Steiner says. "Our journey from Lindblum was very tough. But... ...it was your white magic that helped me through the battles against all those monsters... ...your fortitude that got us past the obnoxious moogles in Chocobo's Forest... ...and, finally, your idea to use gysahl pickles to get past the South Gate guards! I am thoroughly impressed by your intelligence and courage, Princess!"

"Steiner, you can't call me that." Dagger she says in a reprimanding tone.

"My apologies. I'm just not used to..." Steiner says.

"It's okay." She consoles him. "I made lots of mistakes when Zidane and Ron taught me how to talk like this."

"That monkey peasant had no manners whatsoever!" He retorts. "Although...he did have some wit for a bumpkin, but... The way he spoke to you was simply unacceptable! I say good riddance. And Ron had no right questioning the Queen; she would never.."

"Steiner!" Dagger yells but low enough for only him to here. "I know he's right."

"But--" Steiner tries to protest but Dagger continues.

"I know he's right." She states. "He was there with me, Zidane and Vivi at the underground factory, we both saw the Alexandrian symbols on the barrels, my Mother is behind this, so don't you question my friend."

"Yes, Miss Dagger." Steiner says as he remains silent on the car.

***************************************************************************************************************************

Alright, the end is near folks! Burmecia is the next chapter so stay tuned for: **The Realm of Eternal Rain: Burmecia.**

Rate & Review, please!


	12. CH12:The Realm of Eternal Rain: Burmecia

**Duelist of Dawn: **Hurray! I'm here the final chapter! I know I said maybe two chapters but I decided just to get it all out right here and now, baby!

**Ron: **Especially, since whom I'm fighting in the near end of this chapter!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Yeah, I'm hoping this boss fight will be the cherry on top to finish this chapter and hope to impress my readers who love my fights.

**Ron: **From what I hear, Katherine the Black Rose very much likes them, don't disappoint now!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Thanks for the vote of confidence. Just get out the disclaimer and let's get to the festivities.

**Ron: **The Duelist of Dawn doesn't own Final Fantasy 9, just me, because I am him in story form!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Which begs the question: how are you gonna face you-know-who?

**Ron: **Just wait and see!

**Duelist of Dawn: **Start the final Chapter!

***************************************************************************************************************************

**Final: Chapter 12**

**The Realm of Eternal Rain: Burmecia**

After our run in with Master Gizamaluke, we left the grotto and proceeded north to Burmecia. Hopefully, we can stop the enemy there and free up Freya's birthplace. Our clothes were still wet from being from being trapped in a watery magic prison and being crushed by its pressure. As we walked towards Burmecia, Vivi started a conversation.

"Why don't we dry off our clothes?" He asked. "We'll catch a cold staying like this."

"There's no need, Vivi." Freya said. "The lands around Burmecia are always surrounded by rainclouds."

"Is that why it's called the Realm of Eternal Rain?" I asked.

"That's correct." Freya stated.

"Oh, well maybe after we take down Brahne and her army, we can dry off near a fire somewhere." Zidane inquired.

"Is good idea." Quina said.

Afterwards, we passed over to a nearby arch gate. It seemed okay, but I still had bad vibes around it and it was voiced by Freya.

"The smell of fire... And blood!" She said. Being a rat, she had heightened senses. "There must have been a huge battle on the other side of that gate..."

"Something smell bad. I get bad feeling!" Quina said being rarely serious. Then she saw a flower nearby and walked over to it. "Flower smell good!" She then picks up the flower. "You smell flower!"

"Quina does whatever she feels like doing." Freya noted. "I must learn from her ways."

"I don't think it's intentional, Freya." Zidane said.

"Yeah, you know all she really has on the brain is food." I added.

"No, if I had done as I pleased, I would've been..." Freya said nut was cut off by Vivi.

"Quina, don't--"He saw Quina eat the flowere she held.

"Zidane, this flower taste good!" Quina said, licking her face.

"See what I mean?" Zidane said to Freya.

"But still..." Freya wanted to say something but let it go; there were more problems to be dealt with first. "Let's go! Burmecia is just ahead!" She raced to the gates of Burmecia with rest of us on her tail. Soon, we ran into the moderate rain shower that surrounded Burmecia, we made it. Freya held back a bit as the rest of us looked over the broken and battered gates.

"So...this is Freya's home..." Zidane said after a slight silence. He then turned to Freya who was way behind us now. "What are you doing? Get over here."

Freya walked over to the gates and knelt down in front of them in respect for her land. "It's been five years... I've been away for so long. Not a night went by when I didn't dream about home. I can't believe I'm here... I am no longer the selfish child I was five years ago. The time has come for me to serve my kingdom as a Burmecian dragon knight once again!" She rose up with renewed vigor and inner strength from the sight of her aura.

"I'll do what I can to help!" Zidane yelled.

"Me, too!" Vivi added

"I help, too!" Quina said.

"And me!" I said. "Let's go."

We all run off into the city, but Freya lingers and I hold back to listen to her.

"What can I do for my kingdom?" She ponders and shakes her head. "This is not the time."

"Don't worry, we'll stop this slaughter." I told her in a reassuring tone.

"You're right, thank you, Ron." She said as we walked in the gates and into the city. Looking around, I couldn't see why any kingdom would have their place around an area that always rains. Maybe in the past, it served as how Burmecian dragon knights could work out as the rain would cause them all to have colds. Now see this place, it was like a cloud of sorrow; the people here were being stuck down for no reason whatsoever.

"This is so wrong." I muttered, the ground was littered with the dead bodies of Burmecian knights AND civilians, men, women and children alike. "No one deserves this senseless slaughter." We continue to walk along the path as we seen the residential part off the kingdom. The bad news kept on coming as Zorn and Thorn appear on two balconies, looking down at us.

"It is them again!" Zorn said.

"Most persistant, they are!" Thorn added.

"BLACK MAGES!" They shouted as they left the balcony and two Black Mages appear in their places.

"KILL!" They shouted and jumped down to battle us.

Zidane and I quickly strike down the foes as we jumped up to meet then in mid-air and cut them. As the mages fell to the ground, Vivi quickly used blizzard to hold them down and Freya and Quina quickly stabbed them with their spear and giant fork.

The jesters were outraged at this.

"The general will punish you for this!" Zorn threatened us.

"Yes! Very scary, it is, when the general gets mad!" Thorn said as he maniacally grinned at the thought of us being brought down. They soon run back inside the apartment they commandeered.

"Oh no you don't!" I yelled as I bust through the door and ran upstairs in an effort to find the two jesters. "Damn!" I check the balconies they were both on and jumped into the next room and I was shocked at what I found. "Guys, get in here!"

Freya was quicker as she jumped on the balcony from her point on the ground. Everyone else took the stairs and hopped the balcony like I did. They saw the sight I saw: a hole inside a bedroom, probably how those two escaped, but that was the least of our problems; A dying Burmecian soldier was sitting near the bed, he didn't have much time.

"The bell...by the bed...use it...open gates..." Those were finally words before Death took him.

"Vivi, get the bell." I said, as he got under the bed and grabbed a bell similar to what we've seen at Gizamaluke's Grotto. But this bell was gray-colored.

"Do you know where this gate is, Freya?" Zidane asked her.

Freya thought for a few minutes before taking the bell from Vivi and ran out the balcony. We followed her trail to the eastern plaza and found a huge gray gate with a bell on the top of its arch. Freya rang the bell causing the bell on the gate to ring and open the gate. We all walked up the flight of stairs, ready to take on all comers.

"Zidane..." We all stopped as Freya spoke and looked down on the stairs. "Burmecia's royal palace is beyond these steps. It

must be in ruins, just like everything else. I can't bear to see it like that..."

"I understand, but we can't go back now. We have to find out who's behind this." Zidane said.

"Yeah, we have to keep going and find your King!" I added.

"...I wanna find out who those guys were...and why I look like them." Vivi said, referring to the black mages and he was shaking when said it. I held him by the shoulders to calm him.

"Look, Vivi's scared, too. But we have to face reality." Zidane pointed out.

"Come on, Freya. It'll be okay..." Vivi said trying to encourage Freya. She walked up to him and kneeled down to face him.

"Vivi..." She said in a soft tone. "Do you really know what you're doing? The answer you seek may forever change your life for the worse."

Vivi now was pondering that before continuing to speak. "Um...... Y-Yeah... But... But I have to... I have to find out who I am... I'm scared... What if I'm not even human...?"

"Vivi..." I muttered.

"What you talking about?" Quina jumped in. "I not human, but you definitely human!" Suddenly, we heard footsteps approaching from the top of the stairs.

"Someone's coming!" Zidane shouted as he and I got ready to fight. We see a Burmecian soldier with woman and two children run down the stairs, stopping right in front of us. The soldier drew his lance.

"Who are you!?" He said in hostility. "Are you in league with the black mages!?"

"No!" Zidane quickly answered.

"You're lying!" the soldier retorted as he pointed to Vivi. "There's a black mage right behind you!"

"No! I didn't do anything! I would never hurt anyone!" Vivi said shouting from behind me.

"Lies!" The soldier said.

"He's telling the truth!" Freya stepped in and walked over to the soldier.

"...Freya!?" The soldier gasped.

"It's good to see you, Dan." Freya said calmly.

"Damn, I haven't seen you in years. Where've you been!?" Dan questioned but dismissed it quickly. "Actually, this isn't the best time to talk! We've gotta get out of here fast. There are black mages swarming all over the place. What are you waiting for!?"

"Where is the king?" Freya asked.

"I don't know. I didn't see him in the palace." Dan answered to Freya's dismay. "Well, I'm going. I have my own family to worry about. Freya, forget about the king and get out of here! We're no match for those black mages!" He then leads family out of the city.

"I will protect my home and my king at any cost." She says as she looks up the stairs. "Let's go to the palace." We ran up the stairs and into a structure. Inside we see a wounded soldier and his pregnant wife speaking to each other near a statue.

"Come on, dear! We have to go now!" The wife pleaded her husband who had a broken leg.

"I can't move anymore." He stated. "Wei, Go on without me..."

"No! I can't do that, Kal!" Wei cried. "Remember that promise we made each other in front of Master Gizamaluke?"

Kal gave a smile to his wife. "How could I forget... But my only wish now is for you and our child to survive. Please bear a healthy child, darling. Raise him to be strong."

"Oh, Kal!" Wei said as Zidane and I ran to them.

"It's too dangerous to stay here." Zidane told the couple. "You have to escape to Lindblum. I'm sure Regent Cid will protect you."

"But my husband..." Wei pleaded. "He was hurt by those black mages. He can't move. How can we possibly escape to Lindblum!?"

Suddenly, the statue is shaking and about to collapse.

"LOOK OUT!" I shouted. I rush to the statue and hold it up as long as I can. "Zidane get him away!"

Zidane moved Kal to safety, as soon as they and Wei was away from danger, I tossed that statue away.

"Whew! That was close!" Zidane said looking at the broken statue.

"Geez... Thanks." Kal said in relief.

"Thank you." Wei said as she bowed to me and Zidane. Then another soldier showed up.

"Wei! Kal! Are you alright!?" He said while examining Kal's injury.

"Yeah Gray, we survived, somehow." Kal answered. "Can you give me a hand?

"Sure." Gray replied as he helped up Kal on his good foot.

Kal turned to Zidane and I. "Thanks again, pals. Maybe I'll see you again in Lindblum. By then, my kids'll be born. You two definitely have to come and see them."

"We are looking forward to it. Take care." Zidane said as we watch the three Burmecians leave the city. We met up with Freya, Vivi and Quina as we searched the interior of the structure. Inside we find a lone treasure chest.

"Come to papa!" Zidane said as he walked over to the chest.

'_Wait, that chest wasn't there before.." _I thought. "Zidane, no!" I ran over to him and held him back.

"Hey, what gives!" Zidane yells as he pushes me off his back.

"That chest was not there!" I said pointing to the chest. "That's were the couple was at before."

"You're right, but how'd it get here?" Freya wondered.

"I show you why." I said as I casually walked behind the chest.

"What you doing?" Quina asked me.

"Ron, what's going on?" Vivi asked.

"HIYA!" I side kicked the chest and it roared in my pain as it soared to the wall.

"What the Hell!?" Zidane shouted as he examined the hole.

"Ron, what did you do?" Freya asked and soon enough the chest climbed out of the hole showing off its true nature: there were green arms sprouting from sides and the lid had teeth on the edges. Finally, inside the chest were two angry eyes staring me down.

"It's a Mimic!" I said as the Mimic quickly crawled to me. I got ready move as it continued to crawl. As it got close enough, it launched itself to chomp me but I caught it by using my trench knives to lock his mouth. The thing was struggling to get away but the knife part was lodged in the mouth.

"Need assistance?" Freya asked readying her spear.

"By all means." I reply while holding the mimic down. We start to pummel that thing with punches and stabs until it stops moving. "Vivi, if you will?"

"Fire!" Vivi lights the mimic on fire and torches it.

"There's the exit!" Zidane said. We all leave through the building and come across an armory. Freya gains a new Mythril Spear and Vivi get a lightning staff. I felt the aura leaking from the two weapons; Vivi had learned to us the Thundara spell and Freya learned a healing art called Reis's Wind. Before leaving we met up with an old acquaintance from Alexandria.

"Hey it's Stiltzkin!" I see the gold armored moogle that left to journey, coming inside the armory, maybe to get out of the rain.

"You're guy with Kupo. Nice to see you again!" He replied. "But listen, I'm in a jam here."

"What's up?" I ask.

"I need some money to continue and I was interested if you buy some Ether, a Hi-Potion and a Soft for 333 gil?" Stiltzkin offered.

"Sure, here you go!" I said pulling out the desired amount and received the items offered.

"Thanks, this will get me by for a week or so!" He replied.

"Take care!" I said leaving out the armory with everyone else. We then walked up to the steps of a ransacked and broken palace.

"Geez, this is terrible..." Zidane wondered, and then turned to Freya who was on her knees in sorrow. "Freya, I'm sorry, but from the looks of this, I don't think the king made it. ......"

"I don't know what to tell you... We can only hope that the king and the others escaped." I added trying to give her hope, but she didn't respond.

"I don't think Dagger came here... I wonder where she went..." Zidane wondered. I wanted to say where, but I didn't want to stop her from her planning. "Vivi, Ron let's go see what's over there." He pointed near a tall statue.

Suddenly, Freya jumps up high and lands on a statue above and in the balcony of the castle.

"There's someone inside the palace!" She said in alert. "What are you waiting for? Get up here." She then walks into the palace.

"You make it sound so easy... I guess I'll start here. Come on." Zidane jumps from ledge to ledge to get up to meet Freya.

"I'm next." I follow Zidane's path and reach up to the ledge. "You guys coming?" I called to Vivi and Quina.

"Um...okay." Vivi jumps up on the first ledge but does a faceplant.

"Oh, man." I slap my forehead seeing that Vivi can't jump any further. "I'm gonna go on ahead. Try to find a way up here. I'll meet you up top." I looked to Quina. "Quina, help Vivi get in, okay?"

"I meet you after I eat food inside palace!" Quina replies which I groan to. I run in after Freya and Zidane. He finds her hiding behind a statue, watching a couple of people down below in the palace. One of them was Queen Brahne herself, fanning her self while grinning. The second was a blonde, beautiful female knight clad in sliver armor and red tights. She also had a silver eye patch covering one of her blue eyes and a powerful looking sword strapped to her hip.

I scanned their auras; Queen Brahne, weak no surprise. The female knight had a strong blue aura matching mine, and mine was powerful enough, she'll be tough to beat.

"Who are they?" Zidane whispered to Freya who had narrowed her eyes at the people below.

"I knew she was behind all this, Ron your assumption was correct." She said.

"What do you mean, you knew?" Zidane asked being out of the loop.

"I decided to return to Burmecia because I heard rumors that Brahne had set her sights on our kingdom." Freya explained.

"Then that girl standing next to her must be Beatrix, Alexandria's general." Zidane pointed to the female knight. Freya and I gasped.

"Beatrix!?" I said.

"You heard of her?" Zidane asked.

"Yeah, she's the reason while female knights are the dominate ones of Alexandria's army." I answered.

""That's Beatrix? The cold-blooded knight who shows no mercy. Beatrix..." Freya spaced out for a short while before whispering something to herself, "Fratley... You never came back... You've left me with nothing except rumors of your death. I couldn't believe it! I still won't believe it! Never. Not until I witness proof of your death with my own eyes. And I will travel forever across the world forever if I must..."

"Frately?" I asked shaking Freya from her thoughts.

"Huh?" She asked, turning her heads to Zidane and I.

"Are you alright?" Zidane asked.

"Yes. I was just thinking...about the past..."She replied.

"...You still can't get over him, huh?" Zidane asked her but was suddenly stopped by the presence of another person. "Who is that?"

I suddenly felt the strong aura enaminating from him. It felt so powerful. It was strong enough to reach me. He was an androgynous man in white and had silver hair. He walks towards Beatrix and Brahne as we eavesdrop on the conversation.

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(Down Below, Throne Room)

"I find this rain quite pleasant... I feel as though the raindrops are blessing our victory..." The silver-haired man said in a narcissistic tone.

"This is a great victory for us." Brahne replied as she turned to the man. "Kuja, your black mages made this conquest so simple. My only concern now is finding the king of Burmecia. We must take care of him once and for all, and prevent these rats from ever rising up again." She then turns to Beatrix. "Beatrix, what's taking so long!?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty" She replied. "I've ordered Zorn and Thorn to search the perimeter, but there's been no word so far. I will join them and lead the search right away."

"You're wasting your time." Kuja says, just as Beatrix was beginning to walk off.

"What?" She asked.

"Rats often look for new homes when they sense an earthquake." Kuja says. "They probably moved to the sandy tree house by now... So, you see, it's too late. The king has already turned tail and fled."

"Sandy tree house..." Brahne ponders. "Surely, you can't mean Cleyra!? It'll be quite difficult if they escaped to Cleyra."

"Cleyra..." Beatrix herself ponders. "Unless we can get through that sandstorm, it will be impossible to attack them."

"Sneaky, little rats!" Brahne mutters before turning to Kuja. "Kuja, what do you think? Surely, with your powers, there must be something you can do."

"Of course, Your Majesty." He says with a bow. "I will present you a marvelous display of my power. I am certain that you will be most pleased. I was wondering if you would gather your troops near Cleyra. I'mcertain those filthy rats will retaliate in full force, and my black mages may not be enough."

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(Up at the statue)

"Sounds like we got trouble." Zidane mutters.

"That's the understatement of the night." I reply.

"That sinister man... Who is he?" Freya wonders.

"Beats me... I've never seen him before. Well, it sounds like they're going to Cleyra. I've always wondered why people call it the 'City of Illusion.'" Zidane says.

"I don't know, either." Freya said. "Cleyra has remained in isolation for hundreds of years. If my poeple escaped to there, they'll be safe, at least for a while."

"What's the place like?" I asked.

"The people of Cleyra are originally from Burmecia." She explained. "Long ago, they severed ties with Burmecia over a trivial conflict. Now the kingdom is at peace, shielded by a large sandstorm."

"Look, there's someone else coming!" Zidane says. We see a Burmecian soldier run over to Beatrix.

"What is he thinking!?"

"Geez, he's gonna get killed!" Freya and Zidane say at the same time before they jump down and run towards him.

"Hey, wait!" I follow after them.

"Burmecia will never fall! Prepare to die!!!" The solider cries, drawling his lance.

"You wish to fight me, Beatrix of Alexandria?" Beatrix says in a cold-blooded tone.

(Play 'The Wavering Blade (Beatrix Battles)' from Final Fantasy 9)

The Burmecian soldier suddenly backs down in fear. "B-Beatrix!?"

Beatrix draws her sword, a silver blade with a hilt adjourned in jewels. "I commend your courage, but I will show you no mercy."

Without a beat, Zidane, Freya and I jump down in between Beatrix and the Burmecian soldier.

"Hold it!" Zidane shouts as he draws his double-bladed sword.

"You'll have to deal with us, first!" I added brandishing my trench knives.

"We'll take care of this." Freya says to the soldier. "Go find the king. Protect him with your life."

"...Thank you, Freya." The soldier runs off as Beatrix laughs triumphantly.

"Ha ha ha. I've never been so humiliated in my life." She says. I once killed a hundred knights single-handedly... To me, you three are nothing more than insects." She sees Vivi and Quina run over. "That goes for your two friends as well.

The battle begins as Beatrix strikes Freya with her blade, forcing her down.

"Whoa!" Zidane says but then engages the knight in a sword clash. Quina goes to try and stab the fork in Beatrix, but she sees this.

"Humph, child's play." Beatrix responds as I feel power coming from her blade. "Thunder Slash!" She slices her sword against Zidane's blade causing him to be shocked and launched into Quina.

"Thundara!" Vivi uses his new spell and shocks Beatrix. I then run in and sweep her off her feet with a kick.

"Yeah!" I give a 'thumbs up to Vivi.' Suddenly, Beatrix gets up a nearly slashes my head off, if it weren't for me ducking in time. But instead of battling me, she goes to Vivi who is under attack. Vivi tries to block with his staff, but he wouldn't last long.

"Help!" Vivi yells as he still blocks Beatrix's relentless onslaught. I ran over and shout 'Dragon Kick!' as my leg ignites and I kick her away from Vivi. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." I say seeing Beatrix get back up again as she readies her blade.

"You're quite skilled." She addresses me. "But don't think you'll beat me easily."

"Never crossed me mind." I reply as I got ready to strike.

"Reis's Wind!" I felt that Freya cast something within the wind and felt healing power restoring me.

"Thanks Freya!" I yell to her as I take on Beatrix. I try to punch her but she dodges at the last minute. She then tries slashing me but I evade them all. Once she saw an opening, she goes to slash downward, but I catch the blade with my hands. She then struggles to get the blade away, but to no avail against my strength.

"You...can't be this...powerful." She says.

"Whatever." I say as I kick her in the gut, followed by a palm thrust to the face, sending her down.

"Alright!" Zidane yells coming over to me. "You kicked her ass!"

"It's not over yet." I say, seeing Beatrix struggle to get up. "Stop this, right now. Burmecia has done nothing to you or your kingdom!" I say to Beatrix.

"I follow my Queen's orders..." She says. "And they are LAW!" She blindly tries a frontal slash again but I stop it again by holding it.

"Can't believe you tried that again, knowing it didn't work." I berate her.

"Can't believe you didn't see my real attack." She says calmly, while confusing me. "SHOCK!" A light energy shoots from her blade and blasts me over Zidane and the guys.

"RON!" They see me fall hard on my back as I cry out in pain.

"You're no match for me!" Beatrix says as she charges her blade. "Stock Break!" Zidane and the others turned to catch an orange shockwave blasting them down to the ground. "Ignorant fools." She looks over the fallen fighters who are gasping for air. "How ridiculously weak... Isn't there anyone who is worthy of facing me?" She says, bluntly.

"Me!" I shout getting up.

"Like I said, you have skill but I am the better warrior." She says. "You caught me off guard but only for a while; no un-armed fighter can best me, even with knuckles braces on their fists."

"I'll be the first." I say putting up my fists.

"Weak-minded fool!" She says as she runs to me, ready to deal the final blow when...

"AHHHH!!" My body is engulfed in light and pushes Beatrix back some. After the light, I felt my body healed as I Tranced again. "Now let's fight!"

(End the Wavering Blade; play Otherworld (Ron's theme) From Final Fantasy X)

Beatrix looks stunned as she looks upon my Trance form before shaking her head, "You won't win!" She yells. I side-step the attack. "Don't toy with me!" She strikes and misses again.

"Weren't you playing with my friends and I?" I mock. I raise my hands and gather aura energy. "Aura Cutter!" I throw a punch as it sends an arc wave towards Beatrix. She blocks it with her blade but the arc still pushes her back still.

"What is this magic!?"She yells as she jumps away from the arc and watches it cut cleanly threw the wall. She stares at me seeing my white aura around me.

"Surprised?" I say gathering more power. "Aura Beam!" I point my finger as it expels a concentrated white beam at her which she jumps out the way. But she suddenly sees me right next to her as she's still in mid-jump, and sees my white palm on her head. "Aura Pulse!" My palm sends energy to her head as she's launched from the sky and into the wall. She's still alive, but backs away at the sight if me walking towards her.

"S-Stay b-back, monster!!" She shouts shakily.

"I'm the monster?!" I asked in anger. "You and your Queen are attack innocent people for your own personal gain! If anything, you're the monsters! What would Princess Garnet say!?" Beatrix gasps.

"You know where she is?" She says.

"Don't bother..." I turned to see Kuja walking towards me with a smirk. "We meet again, Project: Eclipse."

"Huh?" I say. "What are you talking about?"

"You can't fool me, Eclipse." Kuja says. "I sense your very soul within this body, where have you been hiding, hmm?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I say with my anger building up.

"Really, then go away." I feel powerful magic shooting from his body. "Flare Star!" A circle of red orbs spin furiously at me and sends me flying in the king's throne. "How does it feel to not reach your best? Flare!" He shoots a red orb above and causes boulders to fall on top of me, making my world go black...

(End music)

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Uh oh! The end of the first story place Ron in a pile of boulders! This does not bode well for our friends who are in pain after Beatrix's paladin skills.

This may be the end of the first story, but it will still continue readers. Read, Review and wait on the next story:

**Melodies of Life Chronicles: Sorrow.**

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**Skill List:**

**Aura Pulse: **A palm of aura strikes the foe.

**Aura Beam: **Fires a beam of concentrated aura of the user.

**Aura Cutter: **Strikes with a cut that also sends an arc wave that follows after.


End file.
